On the birth anniversary of the Iron Man of India, Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi flagged off a special train from Bhubaneswar on Tuesday, 27 October 2026, bound for Ekta Nagar, Gujarat — carrying citizens from across Odisha's districts to the national-level Rashtriya Ekta Diwas (National Unity Day) celebrations on 31 October.

Bhubaneswar to the Statue of Unity

Flagging off the train, CM Majhi posted in Odia: 'Ekta Nagariku abhimukhe yatra karuthiba swatantra trainku pataka dekhai shubharambha kali' — 'I flagged off the special train heading towards Ekta Nagar.' The journey, he noted, would carry the spirit of Odisha's harmonious culture onto a national stage and strengthen the bonds of unity and brotherhood.

Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, India's first Deputy Prime Minister, unified more than 500 princely states into the Indian Union after independence — a feat of political will that redrew the map of the subcontinent. His birth anniversary, 31 October, has been observed as National Unity Day every year since the central government instituted the observance in 2014.

Ekta Nagar and the Statue of Unity

Ekta Nagar in Gujarat is home to the Statue of Unity, the world's tallest statue, which was inaugurated on 31 October 2018 to mark Patel's legacy. The site has since become the focal point for India's annual National Unity Day ceremonies, drawing state delegations and citizen groups from across the country each year.

Odisha's participation follows a broader pattern of eastern Indian states dispatching citizen delegations to Ekta Nagar as an act of federal solidarity. CM Majhi extended his 'heartfelt wishes' to all citizens from various districts of the state making the journey, underscoring the trip's dual purpose: honouring Patel's memory and projecting Odia culture at a national event.

'Ek Bharat, Shreshtha Bharat' on the move

The train's dispatch is framed squarely within the Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat initiative — the 2015 central government scheme designed to foster inter-state cultural exchange and integration. CM Majhi invoked the programme's central ideal, calling it a 'great vision' that the Ekta Nagar gathering would embody.

The journey is more than a commemorative gesture. It positions Odisha visibly inside a national conversation about unity — and it does so not through declarations, but through the movement of real people from the state's districts to Gujarat's plains.

All eyes now turn to 31 October and the national ceremony at Ekta Nagar, where Odisha's cultural contingent will represent the state's 'sauhardyapurna sanskriti' — its culture of amity — before the country.