BHUBANESWAR: The NDA Presidential candidate Droupadi Murmu will finally set foot on her home soil on Friday when she arrives in the State capital to meet lawmakers and seek their support for her in the upcoming election to the highest office of the country.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, who has pulled out all stops for garnering votes for Murmu whom he has called the 'Daughter of Odisha', will have an one-on-one meeting with her at Naveen Nivas after her arrival.
He is also expected to attend the meeting of BJD MPs and MLAs in the Assembly hall which will be addressed by the Presidential candidate. After the meeting with the BJD lawmakers, she will interact with the BJP MPs and MLAs at the State guest house. She will then leave for Lucknow.
Sources said that the NDA Presidential candidate does not have any programme to meet Congress MLAs from Odisha during her visit here. The BJD had launched a campaign in favour of Murmu by urging all the nine Congress MLAs, CPM MLA Arjun Munda and independent MLA Makaranda Muduli to vote in her favour. While Muduli has agreed, the Congress and Left party legislators have been non-committal.
Meanwhile, expelled BJD MLA from Gopalpur Pradeep Panigrahi has announced his support to Murmu. Panigrahi is the second MLA after Muduli, to do so. Stating that Murmu will be given a rousing welcome, Muduli said he will also meet her at the State guest house.
While the BJD has 112 MLAs in the 147 member Assembly, the BJP has 22 members followed by nine of Congress. There are two members expelled from BJD, one CPM MLA and one independent member.