Sonepur: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Subarnapur Saturday (April 6) and address an election meeting at the Rameshwar Stadium here.
The people here are enthusiastic over the visit of the Prime Minister as it comes 28 years after his predecessor Chandra Sekhar had visited Sonepur when it was a sub-division in undivided Bolangir district.
The Prime Minister will attend a BJP meeting at Sundargarh before proceeding to Sonepur.
At Sonepur, the PM will attend the BJP’s ‘Vijay Sankalp Samavesh’ meet at the Rameshwar Stadium at 12 noon. The Prime Minister is scheduled to stay for an hour in the town.
This is the first visit Prime Minister Narendra Modi visits Sonepur. Former Prime Minister Chandra Sekhar was the last PM to have visited the town May 21, 1991.
The former Prime Minister had attended an election meeting held at Manikeshwari Grounds.
The district administration and the police have made elaborate arrangements for the visit of Prime Minister Modi to the town Saturday. A team of the Special Protection Group arrived at Sonepur Tuesday night to check out on the security arrangements.
A podium and a helipad have been built by leveling a spot by the side of the ring road opposite the stadium. Arrangements have also been made to control traffic during the Prime Minister’s visit.
Parking facilities have been provided at Royal Grounds, Gandhi Grounds and Kunja Square. BJP leaders are going all out to make the Prime Minister’s visit a success.
The party is focusing on Birmaharajpur and Sonepur Assembly seats in Subaranapur district in Bolangir LS seat as well as Boudh and Kandhamal Assembly seats in Kandhamal Lok Sabha constituency.
BJD heavyweight Pradip Amat is an MLA from Boudh district while state minister Niranjan Pujari and former MLA Padmanabh Behera are MLAs from Subarnapur district.
BJP candidates have never won these seats. The party’s Lok Sabha candidate also secured much less votes than the BJD candidate in 2014.
But the BJP registered substantial success in these two districts in the panchayat elections. The BJP is trying to cash in on the Modi visit and swing public opinion in its favour.
The party is trying to pacify its disgruntled leaders and workers making use of the Prime Minister’s visit.
PNN