Amit Shah arrives in Odisha, to attend meetings with Patnaik

Union Home Minister Amit Shah arrived in Bhubaneswar on Friday night.

Shahs flight landed at 11.50 pm, and he was received at the airport by BJP state president Manmohan Samal and Bhubaneswar MP Aparajita Sarangi, among others.

He will stay the night at a private hotel.

On Saturday, he is scheduled to launch a national highway project and attend meetings on Left-Wing Extremism and disaster management. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik will also attend the two back-to-back meetings at the state secretariat.

Though there is no official confirmation about a one-to-one meeting between Shah and Patnaik, the Union ministers programme list showed that a 30-minute meeting is scheduled after the two meetings at the state secretariat. However, there is no mention whom Shah will meet.

The home minister is also scheduled to attend a meeting at the airport lounge before leaving for Delhi on Saturday evening, officials said, without specifying who would be present in it.

Shahs visit to the state comes amid the BJD extending its support to the bill replacing the Delhi services ordinance in a boost to the treasury benches, especially in Rajya Sabha, and also backing the BJP-led NDA government against the no-confidence motion brought by opposition parties in Parliament.

Shah will also visit the BJPs state office on Saturday afternoon, and hold a closed-door meeting with party leaders. His last visit to the state on June 17 was cancelled in view of cyclone Biparjoy hitting Gujarat.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Federal staff and is auto-published from a syndicated feed.)