Odisha govt set for Modi's Rourkela visit

Hectic activities are going on both at the Odisha government and at the BJP state unit to welcome Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the state on April 1.

Modi will be visiting the steel town of Rourkela in the tribal dominated western Odisha district of Sundergarh to dedicate to nation the expanded facilities at the Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP), owned by the public sector Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL).
The prime minister is also scheduled to address a public meeting on the outskirts of the steel town during his visit.

“Nearly one lakh people from within the city and nearby areas are expected to attend the public meeting”, said former union minister and sitting BJP MLA from Rourkela, Dilip Ray.
This is Modi’s first visit to Western Odisha since the last Lok Sabha and Assembly polls.  
Though western Odisha is considered a BJP stronghold, the party suffered a drubbing at the hands of the ruling BJD in the region despite winning Rourkela Assembly segment and the Sundergarh Lok Sabha seat.

Ray and two central ministers from Odisha –tribal welfare minister and Sundergarh MP Joel Oram and Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan–have been working hard to make Modi’s visit to the region a success and use it as an opportunity to rebuild the party there.