New Delhi:
Gujarat Chief Minister
Narendra Modi will address the annual general body meeting of the ladies' wing of industry lobby Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry or FICCI today in New Delhi.
Mr Modi will speak on the topic "Unleash the entrepreneur within; exploring new avenues", a FICCI official said.
The industry body has changed the venue of Mr Modi's address in order to accommodate more audience. The programme was earlier arranged at the FICCI auditorium where the seating capacity is only 200-300. But after pressure from different women organisations, FICCI changed the venue to Le Meridien Hotel to accommodate a larger audience, officials said.
The Gujarat Chief Minister's appointment with the FICCI comes days after Congress Vice President
Rahul Gandhi's address to another industry body, Confederation of Indian Industry or CII.
Mr Gandhi and Mr Modi are both seen as prime ministerial candidates from their respective parties, the Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). So, comparisons between Mr Gandhi's speech at CII and Mr Modi's scheduled FICCI address are inevitable.
At the BJP's 33rd foundation day celebrations in Ahmedabad on Saturday, Mr Modi tore into Mr Gandhi's idea, shared at CII, that India was a "beehive buzzing with the energy and aspirations of a billion people".
"I am shocked to hear Congress leaders think of India in such a manner. For the Congress, India can be a beehive, but for us our country is our mother," Mr Modi said.
At the same venue, BJP chief
Rajnath Singh, who has nominated Mr Modi to the party's highest decision-making body, declared the Gujarat Chief Minister as the "most popular leader in the country today".