After the recent hectic political activities for civic polls in Cuttack and Baripada besides the Rajya Sabha elections, focus has now shifted to national politics. Campaign captains of the two major national parties, the Congress’ Rahul Gandhi and the BJP’s Narendra Modi, are on their visits to the State.
AICC vice-president Rahul Gandhi began his two-day visit on Sunday ahead of Modi’s much-publicised public rally in Bhubaneswar on Tuesday. Both have one target: to capture a maximum number of lok Sabha (lS) seats for their respective parties.
BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik has also been harping on substantially improving on his party’s 2009 poll tally of 14 lS seats this time to play a more effective role in the national power politics.
BJP State leaders desperately hope that the party’s highly popular Prime Ministerial candidate Modi will study the ground realities in Odisha and take an anti-BJD stand during his visit to energise the otherwise demoralised party cadres.
Several BJP State leaders want Modi to adopt a stand against Naveen Patnaik since Patnaik has been persistently attacking the BJP as “communal” and Modi as “not acceptable” as Prime Minister. Besides, Patnaik has been openly batting for a so-called secular federal Third Front, they point out.
On the Congress front, the party’s rank and file was elated on Sunday when Rahul Gandhi, addressing a public meeting at Salepur, slammed the BJD Government and Naveen Patnaik’s alleged role in the mining, coal and chit fund scams..
The impact of the visits of Modi and Gandhi is expected to set the balls rolling for campaigning by different parties in the upcoming elections in Odisha.