Bhubaneswar: With the BJP central leadership announcing Odisha as its focus state for the 2024 Lok Sabha and Assembly elections, as many as seven Union Ministers will visit the state in a span of two days beginning on Friday, party sources said.
The seven Union Minister's who will visit the state are: Dharmendra Pradhan, Arjun Munda, Nityananda Rai, Ashwini Choubey, Bhupendra Yadav, Bisheswar Tudu and Nisith Paramanik.
Pradhan and Tudu are from Odisha.
While Pradhan, Munda, Rai have already reached the state, Choubey and Tudu are scheduled to arrive tonight. Yadav and Paramanik will reach here on Saturday, the sources said.
Apart from Union Ministers, BJP's national spokesperson Sambit Patra and party's national vice-president Baijayant Panda also came to the state to accompany the Central ministers and also attend different meetings with saffron leaders.
The visit of over half-a-dozen Union Ministers to Odisha, came after recent visit of BJP's newly appointed Odisha in-charge Sunil Bansal earlier this week and Union Home Minister Amit Shah's tour in August.
During his visit, Shah had announced that Odisha was on the focus list of BJP and the saffron party will come to power in the state in the 2024 Assembly election.
Party sources said that the seven union ministers will visit at least 12 Lok Sabha segments across Odisha where the BJP's position was comparatively bad. Though the BJP candidates had won in 8 of the 21 Lok Sabha seats in Odisha in 2019 elections, it lost in 13 other seats.
"Our ministers will visit those areas and meet the party workers and guide them on how to perform better in the 2024 elections," said BJP state spokeperson Rajendra Panda.
As per the agenda, while Tribal Affairs minister Arjun Munda left for Jajpur district after his arrival here, Minister of State for Home Nityananda Rai will visit Cuttack.
Munda is scheduled have a meeting with the district administration regarding the execution of the central schemes in the district. Union Minister for Environment Bhupendra Yadav, who was supposed to arrive here on Friday evening, however, rescheduled his programme and will arrive on Saturday.
Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Ashwini Kumar Choubey, Minister of Jal Shakti and Tribal Affairs Bishweswar Tudu will be reaching shortly, Panda said.
"BJP leaders including union ministers visit different parts of the country keeping in view both the organizational interest as well as official work," Nityanand Rai said on his arrival at the airport here.
BJP state general secretary Lekhashree Samantsinghar said the union ministers will attend official reviews and also meet the party workers during the visit.
Senior Congress leader and MLA Suresh Routray, however, said that the visit of Union Ministers and BJP leaders indicated that the General elections will be held in 2023 instead of its scheduled time in 2024.
"The BJP is trying its best to be the number one party in Odisha. However, price rise will sink them. If Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik further supports Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJD will also face the same fate. Congress is coming," Routray said.
BJD MLA Sashibhusan Behera said the Union Ministers will be "disappointed" if they have any political ambition in the state. "There is nothing wrong in Union Ministers reviewing government schemes, but if they do it with political intention, they will be frustrated," Behera said.
"It is right that the BJP's Odisha in-charge and other leaders visit the state for political works, but if Union Ministers also indulge in politics, this is not acceptable in official programmes," he said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)