VIJAYAWADA: After the poll debacle in Andhra Pradesh, the BJP is preparing the ground to have at least seven lakh members enrolled in the State by the end of the membership drive, in a bid to strengthen its cadre for 2024 elections. The BJP leaders will be meeting next week to decide on the membership target.
For the record, the State BJP unit, which has close to 35 lakh members as of now, managed to get less than three lakh votes in the recently concluded Assembly and Lok Sabha polls, meaning that its own members did not vote for the saffron party’s contestants. The State leaders, who maintain that their target is to make inroads by 2024 in AP, want to build their organisation.
The BJP will launch the membership drive on July 6 as part of its nation-wide initiative, with a special focus on Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, West Bengal, Odisha and others. “The aim is to have at least 20 per cent increase in the membership by the end of July. The actual target will be decided by the State unit in a meeting scheduled to be held next week,” BJP national general secretary P Muralidhar Rao told TNIE.
The party will also hold its organisational elections in the last quarter of this year. “Once 20 per cent increase in membership is achieved, organisational elections will begin at the booth and village level. Subsequently, we will also have elections for the State committee,” Muralidhar Rao explained, adding that micro-level planning is being done to effectively build the party in AP.
The BJP national leadership is identifying leaders from each State to take forward the membership drive. It maybe recalled that the BJP had recently decided to organise a country-wide enrolment drive and appointed Shivraj Singh Chouhan as the national convenor. The BJP last held a similar drive in 2014.
Membership drive
July 6 Launch of membership drive
35 lakh members Present strength in State
20% Increase in membership planned