Shimla: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is arriving at Mandi on December 27–the day when the state government completes its four-year in power and goes into the poll mode, at least a year before the elections. Prime Minister Modi's visit is considered quite crucial in the backdrop of recent bypolls in the state, including the Mandi Parliamentary constituency which the BJP lost to Pratibha Singh, wife of former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh.
On Sunday, Chief Minister flew to Delhi cutting short his tour at Mandi, where he had gone to hold meetings with the party leaders and also administration for working out modalities about the Prime Minister's upcoming visit. Thakur is expected to meet Modi on Monday and extend a formal invitation to him for visiting the state and launching several new projects in the state relating to development, infrastructure,tourism and hydro-power sector.
The Prime Minister is also expected to lay the foundation stone for the multi-purpose Renuka Dam project, which was recently cleared by the union cabinet. The project is aimed to supply surplus water to Delhi—the National capital besides providing 40 MW of power to the state. The project had been hanging in fire for at least nine years. There is a plan for a ground breaking ceremony of investment proposals worth
Rs 20,000 crore on the same day during the Prime Minister's visit.
It is expected that Modi may also announce some package for the state ahead of the election year as the BJP is making a bid to return to power in 2021 even as the state has never voted back any incumbent government including those headed by veteran leaders like Virbhadra Singh or Prem Kumar Dhumal.
Under Jai Ram Thakur, who became Chief Minister in 2017—when party's projected Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal lost his election, has a mixed bag of achievements to his credit. But, the results of the four bypoll has dented the BJP giving a hope to the congress to see itself returning to the power despite ongoing leadership tussles. The Prime Minister Modi's visit thus has been purposely planned to give a morale booster to the cadres, who had also faced the accusations of not working at random during the bypoll time, thus it gave the congress a chance to wrest Mandi seat.