BHUBANESWAR: With elections a few months away, the BJP and Congress have shifted their focus to Western Odisha, which can tilt the balance for any political party.
While Congress president Rahul Gandhi will address two public meetings at Bhawanipatna and Rourkela on Wednesday, BJP president Amit Shah will visit Odisha again on February 15 and address a rally at Sambalpur.

Gandhi will visit Odisha only after a gap of 12 days to intensify his pre-poll campaign in the State.
The Congress supremo, who had addressed a massive public meeting near Tamando on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar during his first visit, will target the tribal vote bank during his second visit.
During his last visit to Kalahandi district in 2010 Rahul had introduced himself as the sentinel of Niyamgiri tribals, who were then fighting against attempts by the State Government to introduce mining in the hills.

Former Union Minister Bhakta Charan Das said whenever Rahul visited Kalahandi, history has been created. “Leave alone the urban areas, the zeal among the party workers in rural areas of Kalahandi is so intense that we are not able to provide them with adequate vehicles to attend the public meeting of our party supremo,” he added.

Das said the Congress in Odisha will gain a lot with the visit of Rahul since he is the party leader. “The people of India now want to see him as the Prime Minister,” he said.
After addressing the public meeting at Bhawanipatna, Rahul will leave for Rourkela to address another public meeting before leaving for New Delhi in the afternoon.

State BJP president Basant Panda said Shah will hold a meeting with booth-level organisers of four Lok Sabha constituencies of Dhenkanal, Sambalpur, Bargarh and Sundargarh. About 60,000 booth level organisers are likely to attend, he said.

This will be Shah’s third visit to Odisha this year and second within 12 days. His last visit was on February 3 when he addressed a meeting of BJP’s ST Morcha at Puri.