BJP members at the party office in Bhubaneswar on Saturday. Picture by Sanjib Mukherjee

Bhubaneswar, Jan. 4: Senior BJP leaders today organised a preparatory meeting to chalk out the details of the party’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi’s visit to the state on February 11.

The party intends to make a big event out of his visit because it will mark the beginning of the BJP’s campaign for the general elections.

BJP state unit president K.V. Singhdeo said: “Modi’s visit will certainly boost the party’s electoral prospects in the coming general elections. We are hopeful of winning at least 50 per cent of the Lok Sabha seats from Odisha.”

The BJP, an erstwhile poll ally of the BJD, had won nine of the 21 Lok Sabha seats in the state in 1999. In 2004, the party won seven seats. But after the BJD severed the alliance in 2009, the BJP could not win even a single seat. The party’s number in the Assembly also went down from 32 in 2004 to six in 2009.

“We are making elaborate arrangements to gather nearly one lakh people for the rally to be addressed by the Gujarat chief minister,” said a senior BJP leader.

The party has decided to collect pieces of iron for the statue of unity to be erected in Gujarat. The party workers will visit all the villages of Odisha to mobilise public opinion in favour of the statue and also collect pieces of iron for the grand statue.

The BJP today ruled out any electoral alliance with the BJD and made it clear that it would contest the polls on its own. “There is no plan to forge any alliance with any party now. The party leadership will take a decision at the appropriate time. Everything is possible in politics,” said BJP’s Odisha-in-charge Chandan Mitra. BJP sources said the party would organise nearly 30 meetings of Modi before the general polls across Odisha.