BHUBANESWAR: Congress president Rahul Gandhi will visit the state on January 25, the party announced on Monday.Rahul’s visit will come 10 days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi tours Balangir on January 15. At a time BJP has intensified its preparations for the 2019 elections by organizing a series of programmes featuring Modi, and BJD is rolling out scheme after scheme to attract voters, Congress hopes Rahul will help boost its workers’ morale.Though the party is yet to finalize the venue of Rahul’s visit, sources said he was likely to address a public meeting in a coastal district and interact with leaders in Bhubaneswar.“I discussed Congress’s poll strategy with Rahul ji. I assured him that Congress will make a solid comeback in Odisha ,” the party’s state president Niranjan Patnaik, who met the Congress president in New Delhi on Monday, said.Though Congress has been out of power in Odisha since 2000, its electoral successes in the assembly elections in Chhattisgarh , Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan have enthused workers here. Sources in the party said Rahul was likely to talk about farmer’s plight — a topic that is believed to have resonated with the voter in the three states where Congress came to power. He is also expected to raise the topic of tribal deprivation, the many chit fund scams in the state and rising crime against women.Rahul is also expected to give an answer to Modi’s scathing attack of Congress during the latter’s visit to Baripada on Saturday. The Prime Minister accused Congress of having hatched a conspiracy to weaken the country’s defence between 2004 and 2014 by getting kickbacks from defence deals such as those with AgustaWestland. The subject of the Rafale fighter jets is of special significance in Odisha as Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) — the central public-sector undertaking that was reportedly overlooked in favour of Anil Ambani’s Reliance in the deal — has its plant in Koraput district . Congress has often said that had HAL been in charge of manufacturing the jets, more than 50,000 people in the state would have got employment.Rahul also faces the unenviable task of checking infighting in the state unit of Congress, which has surfaced after senior leader Srikant Jena was removed as chairman of the poll manifesto committee. Jena and former MLA Krishna Sagaria have criticized Niranjan’s functioning as party president for some time. This will be Rahul’s first visit to Odisha after Niranjan was appointed state party president in April 2018.To revive its base in the state, Congress had launched a Jan Sampark and Jagaran Yatra — a public outreach campaign — in October last year. It recently promised loan waiver and free solar pumps for farmers within five hours of forming government, if voted to power here. It also plans to form a dedicated portal to receive suggestions from Odias across the country and abroad in the run-up to the preparation of the poll manifesto. It recently finalized the names of candidates for 44 out of the 147 assembly constituencies in the state.The BJD seems unfazed about Rahul’s visit. “We do not see any point of the visit. Only Congress cadres will be happy for some days. People have rejected Congress in Odisha because of the party’s corrupt practices and wrongdoings in the past,” BJD spokesperson Sasmit Patra said.Despite facing a jolt in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, BJP said Rahul’s visit would not affect its (BJP’s) prospects in the state. BJP president Amit Shah is also scheduled to visit Odisha on January 18 and attend a booth-level workers’ meeting in Cuttack

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