BHUBANESWAR: BJP national president JP Nadda is set to kick-start campaign for the 2024 general elections during his two-day visit to the State beginning September 29. Though the itinerary of Nadda is not finalised, as per the discussions held by BJP national general secretary Dushyant Kumar Gautam with senior functionaries of the party here on Monday, the BJP president will address a rally of party workers at Janata Maidan on the first day of his visit.
“Presidents of panchayat, mandal and booth committees will attend the meeting. It is expected that over 20,000 party workers will attend the rally to be addressed by Nadda,” sources in the party said. After the meeting, Nadda will head to Puri and stay for the night in the holy town. The next day he will visit the Srimandir before returning to Bhubaneswar.
As per his tentative schedule, Nadda will have a series of meeting with party leaders. His first meeting will be with the core committee of the party followed by separate meetings with state office bearers, MLAs and MPs. He is likely to attend some party events in Puri and Cuttack but nothing has been finalised, a party functionary said.
This will be the first visit of Nadda after taking over as national president of the BJP in 2019. Two of his proposed tours to Odisha were cancelled at the last moment due to his other pressing engagements. Gautam, who came here on a day’s visit on Monday, took stock of the preparations and discussed about the two-day schedule of Nadda in the State. A final schedule of the visit will be prepared within a couple of days, sources added.
The BJP workers meeting here on September 29 will be the beginning of the party’s march to Assembly and Lok Sabha elections. Nadda will sound the poll bugle from Janata Maidan, a senior party leader said.
Ahead of Nadda’s visit, leader of Opposition in the Assembly, Jayanarayan Mishra had met Union Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi on Monday and discussed various political and organisational issues.
Nadda is stated to have advised Mishra to strengthen the party at the grassroots level and to intensify the public outreach programme before the next election.