Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit poll-bound Himachal Pradesh on Tuesday to lay the foundation stone for AIIMS and two other projects.

PM Modi will be reaching Bilaspur, the home town of Union Health Minister J P Nadda, who is believed to be one of the chief ministerial aspirants. It is also part of the parliamentary constituency of three-time BJP MP Anurag Thakur.

Foundation stone of three projects

Modi will land at HPCA’s Cricket Stadium, a brain child of Anurag Thakur, at 12.15 pm and head to the Indoor Sports complex where he will also be joined by Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, state Governor Achraya Devvrat, former Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal. PM Modi will lay the foundation stone of three projects, including the Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) at Una and a steel processing plant at Khandrori in Kangra district, in one go via video conference.

Union health Minister JP Nadda inspecting the preparations for the rally of PM Narendra Modi at Bilaspur on Monday.

He will then address a BJP rally on the banks of Govind Sagar lake — a massive man-made reservoir created by Bhakra-Nagal dam, which had submerged Bilaspur town in 1963.

Among those attending will be BJP supporters from three assembly constituencies of Bilaspur, which has a large population of those displaced by the Bhakra-Nangal dam. They will be ferried in 60 boats to reach the rally.

Himachal Pradesh visit

This will be Modi’s third visit to Himachal Pradesh, after he addressed two “Parivartan” rallies at Mandi and Shimla.

Modi considers Himachal Pradesh as his second home, since the time he had worked in the state as party in-charge in 1998 when the BJP had formed the government under Prem Kumar Dhumal. The success of today’s rally is also crucial for J P Nadda, if he intends to come back to the state by sidelining former Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal. Nadda was twice made the cabinet minister under Dhumal in 1998 and later 2007.

Govind Sagar lake in Bilaspur on Monday.

Meanwhile, the Congress, which is lagging behind the BJP in mobilising cadre, on Sunday had hit out against PM Modi for making false promises .

HPCC general secretary Naresh Chauhan said: “People want to know what the GoI has done in the past three and a half years and when the ‘achhe din’ would come.”

Chauhan said Modi had visited the state twice in the past but the people had got nothing except “false promises”, as the employment opportunities had reduced and prices had gone up.

AICC Vice-president Rahul Gandhi is also visiting Himachal Pradesh on October 7 at Mandi to address a Congress rally.

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