)
Major political parties Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), both in opposition in Odisha, have planned mega rallies of their star campaigners for the second phase polls in the state on April 17 in coastal Odisha, considered to be the bastion of ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD).
BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi and Congress president Sonia Gandhi are scheduled to address public meetings in Balasore tomorrow. Modi, who is coming on the fourth leg of his campaign tour to the state, will proceed to address a rally at Talcher. Similarly, Gandhi will also campaign in the neighbouring north Odisha district Mayurbhanj.
Sushma Swaraj, the Leader of Opposition, who was scheduled to speak at public meetings in Keonjhar and Mahakalpada constituencies today, cancelled her programme at the last minute due to ‘unavoidable’ reasons. The state BJP unit said, details of her visit to Odisha will be notified later.
Yoga guru Ramdev today kick started his ‘Modi for PM’ campaign in Odisha by addressing public meeting at Balasore. He said, people of India must vote for Modi, who has promised to bring back black money stashed in overseas banks.
“I want the people of Odisha to play a pivotal role in making Modi the Prime Minister of India after the election. He can bring black money and increase mineral royalty,” he said during a press meet here before leaving for Balasore.
In 2009 Lok Sabha election, the BJD had won 10 seats (including one seat won by BJD supported CPI candidate Jagatsinghpur) out of the 11 seats in coastal Odisha. The lone Balsore seat from this region had gone to the Congress with incumbent Union minister Srikant Jena winning it with a margin of 90,000 votes.
Last time, the BJD did not field any candidate for Balasore Lok Sabha constituency leaving the seat to its poll partner, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).
