Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Assam Saturday on a two-day visit, where he is set to inaugurate and lay the foundation stone of various development projects worth Rs 11,600 crore, address a rally and meet the state BJP’s core committee on Sunday.

A day after he launched multiple infrastructure projects, worth more than Rs 68,000 crore, in Odisha, PM Modi will lay the foundation stones for an integrated new building of the Gauhati Medical College and Hospital (Rs 3,250 crore), the Kamakhya temple corridor (Rs 498 crore), the six-lane road from the new airport terminal (Rs 358 crore) in Guwahati, the upgradation of Nehru Stadium to FIFA standards (Rs 831 crore), a new sports complex in Chandrapur (Rs 300 crore), among others.

Modi will also inaugurate the second phase of the Asom Mala roads, comprising 43 new roads and 38 concrete bridges at a total investment of Rs 3,444 crore, the newly constructed four-lane road from Biswanath Chariali to Gohpur, developed at a cost of Rs 1,451 crore.

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said PM Modi will also meet the state BJP’s core committee later in the day to discuss party affairs, with the Lok Sabha polls just round the corner.

Other top BJP leaders, including Union Home minister Amit Shah and party president J P Nadda, have their focus on the Congress-ruled states of Telangana and Himachal Pradesh, as Jatin Anand reported.

According to BJP sources, Nadda will chair the Himachal Pradesh BJP’s core committee meeting on February 3-4, while Shah will do the same in Telangana on February 4-5. Both leaders are holding these meetings to prepare the party’s strategy to turn the tide in its favour in the upcoming elections.

Out of 17 Lok Sabha seats in Telangana, the BJP currently holds only four, while the party has three of the four Lok Sabha MPs from Himachal.

“All seats and states are important as far as the Lok Sabha elections are concerned; the party would focus on Telangana, where we represent only four of the 17 Parliamentary seats. Himachal is significant for the Rajya Sabha elections,” a source said.

Meanwhile, the Congress is continuing its Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra with its third day in Jharkhand on Sunday. While in Dhanbad, Rahul Gandhi will deliver a public address at the Birsa Munda Chowk before beginning a foot march in Bokaro Steel City. In the second half of the day, the Yatra will continue to Ramgarh, where there will be another public address before halting for the night.

The Yatra’s Jharkhand leg comes at a tumultuous time in state politics. After new Chief Minister Champai Soren took oath on Friday, replacing Hemant Soren who was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case on Wednesday, the ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) sent about 40 of its MLAs to Hyderabad amid fears of horse-trading.

On Saturday, a special court in Ranchi permitted Hemant, who is still an MLA, to participate in the trust vote to be held in the Assembly on Monday.

While speaking in Godda, Rahul called the situation in Jharkhand an “injustice”. “The people of this state elected a Congress-supported government but Narendra Modi ji used ED, CBI and Income Tax department, giving them instructions to act against all those who opposed them. The BJP tried to steal the government elected by the people of Jharkhand. However, the Congress party stood firm with the people’s mandate and saved the government of Jharkhand.”

As the Yatra rolls on, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge is set to launch the party’s campaign in Kerala with a meeting with party workers on Sunday. The party is holding a Mahajana Sabha in Thrissur, where Kharge will address party workers from more than 25,000 booths from across the state. State party president K Sudhakaran, national general secretary K C Venugopal and the Assembly’s Leader of Opposition V D Satheesan will also be in attendance.

The Congress is holding a series of state-level conventions with party workers and office-bearers to be presided over by Kharge as part of its wider push across the country ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

– With PTI inputs