NEW DELHI: Ahead of polls in Haryana and Jammu & Kashmir, the ruling BJP on Saturday pledged to enrol more than 18 crore members through a pan-India membership drive to be conducted between September 1 and November 10.
The campaign will be launched on September 1, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief JP Nadda becoming BJP members afresh alongside all other party workers and cadres. Simultaneously, BJP leaders will conduct a massive membership campaign which will also signal the start of the process to elect a new party president. Incumbent JP Nadda’s term ended in June and is currently on extension.
The membership campaign will serve as a ground level outreach to voters across the country and will span the entire country, barring poll-bound Haryana, J&K, Maharashtra and Jharkhand, where it will be held after the elections conclude. Sources said the membership will be held in two phases — September 1 to 25 with a target to enrol 10 crore people; and September 26 to November 10 to cross the party’s current membership of 18 crore.
A timeline for the campaign was finalised today at a four-hour BJP national membership drive meeting chaired by Nadda and attended by Home Minister Amit Shah, national general secretary Vinod Tawde and general secretary organisation BL Santosh, an RSS leader loaned to the BJP for purposes of coordination between the Sangh and the party.
All BJP national office-bearers, state presidents, state general secretaries and state general secretaries organisation participated in the exercise and were given specific targets to be achieved at booth right up to the state level. A participant The Tribune spoke to said Nadda and Shah stressed the need to “make BJP a truly pan-India party with members in every home, every community, every religion and in every booth”.
They also asked leaders to focus on weak booths with the Lok Sabha election results before them. The BJP membership drive conducted after Modi’s elevation as PM in 2014 had yielded 11 crore members. In 2019, when the BJP again opened memberships for a limited period, seven crore new people enrolled. As of today, BJP has 18 crore members and claims to be the largest global political party.
“A membership drive has been due since Covid 19,” BJP leader Sambit Patra said. Another leader said the commencement of a new membership drive means all current memberships are void and everyone — be it PM, party chief or booth worker must enrol afresh. The BJP will facilitate memberships through a cell number on which people can give a missed call. Sources said the entire membership process is likely to move online.