Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Congress, Sunday, expressed apprehensions about the scheduled visit of Union Home Minister Amit Shah to Odisha, February 28. The party said that the real motive behind Shah’s visit could be to fix a deal with Naveen Patnaik for the Rajya Sabha elections.
Former Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) President Jaydev Jena told the media that CAA and NRC could not be the only agenda for the Home Minister. “The visit of the minister has been planned keeping an eye on the upcoming elections in Rajya Sabha,” he said.
In the next few days the Upper House will see the the tenure ending for three Rajya Sabha MPs from Odisha. With the three seats getting vacant due to end of tenure, the total number of vacancies will be four. While the ruling party in the state can easily get three seats, the decision for the fourth would need some extra effort.
“In the last Rajya Sabha elections, BJP was able to manage one Rajya Sabha seat with the overwhelming support from the BJD. On his visit to the state, Shah is most likely to fix a deal with Naveen Patnaik, seeking his support for two Rajya Sabha seats for the saffron party,” he said.
The Odisha BJP, Sunday, told the media that the former BJP president is all set to visit Bhubaneswar February 28 and undertake the eastern zonal council meeting of the party. He also has plans to address a public gathering at Janta Maidan in the city. BJP leader Prithviraj Harichandan claimed that around 1 lakh people are most likely to attend the event.
“The senior BJP leader will interact with the newly-inducted booth level workers of the party during his visit to the state capital. He will also attend few programmes in Bhubaneswar while on the next day he will make visits to the Lingaraj temple and Puri Jagannath temple,” Harichandan added.
Rubbishing such rumours, senior BJD leader Bhartruhari Mahtab claimed that BJD and BJP are two different parties and claimed that Shah is conducting similar events for CAA and NRC in different parts of the country.
