Gujarat chief minister and BJP national campaign committee chairperson Narendra Modi, who was on a one-day trip to Orissa on Tuesday, tried his best to strike an emotional chord with the people of the state.
Though portrayed as purely “private” and “personal” trip, Mr Modi’s 65-km journey from Bhubaneswar airport to Jagannath temple, Puri, saw it packed with all the elements of a political campaign.
As he alighted from the special plane and came out of the airport, top party leaders like Chandan Mitra, state president K.V. Singdeo, senior leaders like Bijoy Mohapatra, Dharmendra Pradhan, Biswa Bhusan Harichandan and Prasanna Mishra along with hundreds of supporters welcomed him. Traditional cultural troupes and folk dancers were hired to add colour to Mr Modi’s arrival in the state.
Encouraged, the BJP strongman, standing in an open car door, waved at the party supporters as does a leader in a road show.
On his way to Puri, Mr Modi’s cavalcade stopped at Sakhigopal where he garlanded statutes of Panchasakha or the five friends — Pandit Gopabandhu Das, Acharya Harihar Das, Pandit Nilakantha Das, Krupasindhu Mishra and Godavarish Mishra — who had made great contribution to Orissa.
After his darshan of Lord Jagannath, as well as Gajapati King Divyasingh Dev and Sankaracharya Swami Nischalananda Saras-wati, Mr Modi was very much on his target. He addressed the media in Oriya, ostensibly to strike a chord with the people of the land. His pronunciation of words and delivery of sentences, as the party workers claimed, was much better than Orissa chief minister Naveen Patnaik.
He called the people of Orissa as “people of my Orissa.”