Predicting early polls to the Lok Sabha, the BJP was gearing up to meet it, senior party leader M Venkaiah Naidu said on Monday.

All the state units had been asked to complete setting up of their poll strategy committees by August next and be prepared for snap polls, he told reporters.

The BJP would concentrate on the seats won by it at least once from the 1996 Lok Sabha polls. The party had won 296 Lok Sabha seats at least once from 1996. Its NDA partners had won 96 seats at least once, he said. He said the party's victory in Karnataka had opened the gates for the BJP in the south and it was expected to win more seats from Andhra Pradesh, besides opening its account in Kerala [Images].

On the question of alliance with parties in Tamil Nadu, he said his party was open to it. All parties, barring the Congress and Left, were not inimical to the BJP, he said. Criticising the Centre for not fixing minimum support price for paddy at Rs 1,050 as demanded by farmers, he said it only proved the BJP's charge that the UPA government was anti-farmer.