Modi government to focus on Bengal, Kerala and Odisha in its 3rd anniversary function

NEW DELHI: The NDA government’s third anniversary celebrations over 20 days beginning Friday will see the BJP focusing on Bengal, Kerala and Odisha.

The party will organise over two dozen programmes in the three states where chief ministers and more than five Union ministers and central office-bearers will attend. BJP is the main challenger to Naveen Patnaik’s BJD in Odisha and is emerging the main Opposition in Bengal.

It has also managed to open its account in the Kerala assembly and increase its voteshare. However, the party has a long way to go before it can have realistic hopes of forming a government in these states or winning sizable number of Lok Sabha seats there.


Aware of this task, BJP chief Amit Shah and his team have decided to host a sizable number of programmes in the three states. There may be more than 60 events in Bengal alone, says a senior party office bearer.

Chhattisgarh CM Raman Singh will be in Asansol and Jharkhand CM Raghubar Das in Durgapur during the celebrations in Bengal.

Textile minister Smriti Irani, parliamentary affairs minister Ananth Kumar, railway minister Suresh Prabhu, rural development minister Narendra Singh Tomar and minister of state for finance Santosh Gangwar will also visit the state.

BJP general secretary for Bengal, Kailash Vijayvargiya, former state unit chief Rahul Sinha and party national spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain will figure in the list.

BJP also plans to dispatch its ministers from UP to Bengal. They include health minister Siddarthnath Singh, women and child development minister Rita Joshi, Mahendra Singh, SPS Baghel and Suresh Rana. Jharkhand BJP leaders Saryu Rai, Neelkanth Munda and Ajay Nishad are also in the list of leaders who will visit Bengal. Delhi BJP unit chief Manoj Tiwari will participate in a programme.

BJP and RSS cadres have a running battle with CPM cadre in Kerala’s Kannur district even as the party has been making extraordinary efforts to woo the electorate.

Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis, Union health minister JP Nadda, law minister RS Prasad, HRD minister Prakash Javadekar and commerce minister Nirmala Sitharaman are expected to participate in some of the 27 programmes to be held in the state. BJP is buoyant after its impressive performance in the civic elections in Odisha, where BJD won 20 of the 21 Lok Sabha seats in 2014 elections, and has ruled the state for 18 years.

MP CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan, urban development minister M Venkaiah Naidu, petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan, tourism minister Mahesh Sharma, agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh, MoS VK Singh, Babul Supriyo and Ram Kripal Yadav will be among those who will attend celebrations in the state.