Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan along with top State BJP functionaries on Sunday reviewed administrative preparedness and selection of venue at Balasore where Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to address a public meeting on June 2 next.
As per State BJP, the Prime Minister would inform people about the achievements of the NDA government during the past two years.
Apart from holding preliminary discussions with district administration, Mr. Pradhan talked to party workers and updated them about the importance of spreading awareness about the PM’s visit so that impressive gathering can be ensured.
The Balasore meeting will be the third address by Mr. Modi in Odisha in this year. He had flown to port town of Paradip to dedicate the IOCL’s mega refinery complex to nation on February 7 last and two weeks after, he had addressed a massive farmer rally at Bargarh, which hogged headlines for the farmer suicides in the State.
The Paradip meeting had triggered one-upmanship battle between the Biju Janata Dal and the saffron party. The political show of strength resulted in clashes between the cadres of the two parties.
Political message
On the other hand, Mr. Modi had managed to deliver political message through the farmers’ meet at Bargarh in the wake of Naveen Patnaik government’s reluctance to acknowledge farmer suicides in the State.
The BJD government is comfortably placed in Odisha as the Congress and the BJP are not in a position to pose any threat to it. In fact, the saffron party has been trying hard to dislodge the Congress from the second position. The BJP has also made its intention to strengthen its base in Eastern and Northeastern States. Selection of Balasore as venue assumed significance since it shares border with West Bengal where the party had a decent performance in the just-concluded Assembly elections.
Moreover, the success of Balasore public meeting is also important for Mr. Pradhan, who has been trying to position himself as the face of Odisha BJP. After the saffron party appeared to have reaped benefit by projecting Sarbananda Sonowal as Assam Chief Minister, the BJP might make similar move to end long BJD rule in the State.
He would inform people about the achievements of the NDA government during the past two years
