Balangir: Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani today (Apr 12, 2004) said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was growing steadily and could become the single dominant party in the country.

"The party is growing at the expense of the Congress which has been shrinking," he told an election meeting after his 'Bharat Uday Yatra' rolled into Orissa earlier in the day.

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Advani finished his speech within five minutes as his arrival was delayed and he got on the stage with only minutes to go for the ten o'clock deadline for electioneering.

The Congress, during its long stint in power, had failed to address the problems of the people, which had caused it to shrink, he said.

The Deputy Prime Minister entered Nuapada district earlier in the day from Chhatisgarh and was given a rousing welcome at Khariar Road in the presence of Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and State BJP president Manmohan Samal.

The Chhatisgarh Chief Minister, Raman Singh, who accompanied Advani upto Khariar Road, returned to Raipur.

Addressing enthusiastic crowds, who defied the heat to come out for a glimpse of the leader, Advani said the country had made significant progress during the last six years of National Democratic Alliance (NDA) rule in various fields.