BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu at the party’s state executive in Cuttack. Picture by Badrika Nath Das

Cuttack, July 21: Former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Venkaiah Naidu today said there was an opportunity for the BJP to emerge as an alternative in Orissa as the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) was becoming “unpopular” and the Congress “in no position” to take advantage of the situation.

“Strike the iron when it is hot,” the senior BJP leader said, while exhorting party workers to “take up the challenge” at BJP’s state executive committee meeting, which ended at Saheed Bhavan here today. Naidu said “the time is ripe”, but to cash in on the situation party workers should make a united effort.

The two-day meet, which ended today, focussed on how to gear up for the panchayat polls due next year. “We have to first strengthen our base in the grassroot level to gain more seats in the 2014 elections,” Naidu said while hoping for fruits of the massive campaign against corruption that the BJP had conducted in 113 of the 147 Assembly constituencies so far. Earlier, BJP national general secretary and Orissa-in-charge Santosh Gangwar said Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was eyeing the tribal belt in Orissa. “But the ground reality is that BJP already has its presence (there),” he said.

Addressing the media, BJP state president, Jual Oram said: “Executive committee members discussed the agenda of identifying nearly one lakh representatives for the three-tier panchayat elections, which involves 854 zilla parishad members, 6,000 panchayats and 87,000 wards.”

Two resolutions targeting the central government were passed at the meeting. One opposed the draft Food Security Bill approved by the National Advisory Council while the other termed the Prevention of Communal and Targeted Violence Bill as “anti-national”. The party said the proposed law had “no constitutional justification”.