BHUBANESWAR: The BJP on Wednesday announced the likely visit of the party’s national president JP Nadda to the State sometime in the last week of September to attend a training workshop.
Informing about the visit of Nadda and two top functionaries of the party, national general secretary (organisation) BL Santosh and newly appointed Odisha in-charge Sunil Bansal, State BJP general secretary Prithviraj Harichandan said their visit to the State assumed significance as the party is gearing up for the elections in 2024.
While Nadda’s itinerary has not been finalised, he said Bansal is coming on a two-day visit beginning September 5 to take stock of the situation. After Bansal’s visit, a date for the proposed training workshop of the party will be fixed. Stating that Odisha is one of the focused states of BJP central leadership, Harichandan said the party has started its preparation for the 2024 elections.
In fact, Nadda has not paid a single visit to Odisha after assuming the post of national president of the party in 2019. After deferring several of his visit to the State in the last two years, he had given a date to attend the workshop in July but had to postpone it for some other assignment.
Nadda had planned to visit the State in December 2020 and again in January 2021 for an extensive deliberation with party workers, functionaries and elected representatives but the two programmes could not materialise.
He, however, addressed the BJP State executive meeting held in September last year from Delhi through virtual mode. Nadda’s three-year term as party president will end in January 2023. Similarly, Santosh has never visited the State after his elevation to the all-powerful post of organisational secretary of the BJP.
Ahead of the proposed visit of Nadda, the State leadership has started preparing a roadmap on how to galvanise the booth committees as prescribed by Union Home Minister Amit Shah during his August 8 visit.