Bhubaneswar, Nov. 8: The BJP today denied that the Centre was being soft towards the Naveen Patnaik-led government in the state.

'We are not soft towards the BJD. We want development of the backward state and poor people of Odisha,' said Union minister Prakash Javadekar.

Asked about various scams that had hit the state, Javadekar said: 'Let's wait for the outcome of the probe into the deposit fund and mining scams in the state.'

Senior BJP leader Bijoy Mohapatra, on the other hand, alleged that chief minister Naveen Patnaik had 'misled and cheated' people of the state. 'Following the land scam, Naveen had announced that Kalpataru Das was removed from the leader of the BJD's parliamentary party in Rajya Sabha and he was replaced by Dillip Tirkey. But, the decision was not officially communicated to the Rajya Sabha secretariat. That's why Das was nominated as a member of the ethics committee of the Upper House,' he said.

The BJP state unit had raised the land scam issue in the public prominently, forcing Das to announce his resignation from the parliamentary party post. His MLA son, Pranab Balabantaray, had to surrender two of the houses he had been allotted under the discretionary quota by the government.

Launching the party's membership drive, Javadekar said the party wanted to strengthen its organisational base in the state to make it free from the Congress. 'In the coming elections, there will be a direct fight, not a triangular contest.'

The central leader said that at the time of last membership drive in 2010-11, the BJP had 3.5 crore members across India. This time, the party set a target of enrolling 10 crore members. Similarly, the party had three lakh members in the state last time - which it now wants to have at least 40 lakh.

'The number may be more as 46 lakh voters voted for the party this time and many more are leaving the BJD and the Congress to join our party,' he said.

Stating that the state has a 65 per cent tele-density and around 2.5 crore mobile connections, Javadekar said: 'We are using technology to reach out to the people.'

The BJP leaders said they had asked the people to make a call to a toll-free number to be a member, and immediately the membership would be communicated to them. Then, they would be asked to send their address through the mobile phone and party functionaries would visit their doorstep to enrol them.