BHUBANESWAR/CUTTACK: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday visited the birthplace of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose in Odia Bazaar of Cuttack city. He went round the Netaji Museum at Janakinath Bhawan in Odia Bazaar along with Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and other senior leaders of the party.
The Union Minister who is on a two day visit to Odisha started the day with a visit to Lingaraj temple amid tight security and performed 'Jalabhishek'. He also performed a Puja near Goddess Parvati inside the temple. Ten platoons of police force were deployed at the temple during the visit. Shah then had breakfast at the residence of the state unit president of BJP Samir Mohanty.
The Chief Minister and union home minister attended 75th anniversary celebrations of Odia daily Prajatantra at the indoor stadium in Cuttack. Shah was given a rousing welcome at several places in Cuttack city by BJP leaders and workers along the route leading to the indoor stadium.
Senior leaders of the BJD and thousands of party workers received the Chief Minister at the helipad from where he was taken in a bike rally to the indoor stadium. Addressing the function, the Chief Minister welcomed Shah to Odisha. BJD MP from Cuttack, union education minister and eminent writer Pratibha Ray also spoke at the function.
Later, Shah will have a meeting of the state BJP’s core committee at its headquarters in Bhubaneswar. He will also attend a book reading session at Mayfair Convention here and launch the Odisha edition of 'Modi@20: Dreams Meet Delivery' at 4.30 pm. This book has been written on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's completion of 20 years in office, since becoming the Chief Minister of Gujarat in 2001.
Shah had arrived at Biju Patnaik International Airport here at 1.30 am along with the union education minister and was given a rousing reception by senior state BJP leaders including Odisha BJP president Samir Mohanty, Bhubaneswar MP Aparajita Sarangi, National Vice President of party Jay Panda and Opposition whip Mohan Majhi.
After arriving, Shah tweeted, "Looking forward to attending various programs in Odisha. I am grateful to the people of Bhubaneswar for the warm welcome."