A billboard in Bhubaneswar on the eve of Modi’s Odisha visit. Picture by Sanjib Mukherjee

Bhubaneswar, July 15: The political temperature in the state has shot up with Gujarat chief minister and BJP election campaign committee chairman Narendra Modi arriving here tomorrow on a day’s visit.

Notwithstanding repeated assertions of state BJP leaders that the visit was purely religious in nature with Modi to drive to Puri straight from the airport, a lot of political significance is being attached to the trip with speculation rife that he may take the opportunity to review the state party unit’s preparedness for 2014 elections.

Modi, who is already being seen as BJP’s prime ministerial candidate for the next elections, is scheduled to interact with state party leaders in Puri after paying a visit to the Gundicha temple for a “darshan” of the holy trinity and meeting the shankaracharya and Maharaja Dibyasingh Deb, the scion of the local royal family.

Though no one in the state BJP is willing to go public on this, given the scale of preparation for the visit, it seems likely that the leader from Gujarat will set the ball rolling for the 2014 election campaign.

The Congress and the BJD, though wary of Modi’s growing charisma and the pan-India profile he has acquired, tried to downplay the visit.

“There is nothing in this for us to panic about. He is coming on a religious visit. However, the BJP leaders, who have been feeling like fish out of water since losing the 2009 elections, may try to extract political mileage out of it,” said health minister Damodar Rout. Asserting that people of the state were solidly behind chief minister Naveen Patnaik, he said Modi was unlikely to make any dent in the BJD’s base in the state.

The Congress also sought to put up a brave front. Pradesh Congress Committee president Jaydev Jena said Modi’s visit would have no impact on the state politics. “The BJP was a coalition partner of the BJD for 11 years and was involved in all kinds of administrative irregularities. People have not forgotten that,” he said.

However, the BJP, which could win only six seats in the last Assembly elections, hopes for a turnaround in its fortunes following the visit. Party leaders recall how the BJP, which could manage only one Assembly seat in 1985, gradually built its base with its number in the legislature rising to three in 1990 followed by 12 in 1995 and 38 in 2000 when it contested the elections with the BJD. In 2004, however, the number came down to 32. “Modi magic may help the party rise from the ashes,” said a BJP leader not willing to be named.

The state government today declared Modi to be a state guest. “We will send our protocol officer to receive him at the airport. He will be provided with full security,” said a home department official.

On its part, the state BJP has pulled out all stops to welcome Modi on his first visit to the state after taking charge as the party’s election committee chairman. Huge posters and cut-outs of the leader have been put up at the state party office and at various strategic locations in the city and on the highway leading to Puri.

The state leaders, though, continue to maintain that it is a purely apolitical visit. BJP national general secretary Dharmendra Pradhan said: “He is coming on a purely religious visit. But he remains a source of inspiration not just for us, the BJP workers, but the entire country.”