HYDERABAD: Despite their best efforts, the BJP State unit leaders are not able to achieve the membership enrolment target set by their party chief Amit Shah. Amit Shah had given the party’s State leaders the target of enrolling 18 lakh new members, but only around 13 lakh new members were inducted into the party till August 20.
In fact, the State leadership had extended the deadline thrice due to the poor response to the membership drive, first from August 5 to August 11 and then to August 20 and now to August 25.
Party surprised
The saffron party leadership was expecting a large number of people to enrol following the BJP-led NDA’s landslide victory in Lok Sabha polls and abrogation of Article 370, but to their surprise, the response was not up to their expectation. The party leaders are also disappointed with the membership drive in Hyderabad as they could only achieve 50 per cent of the target set for the city. The city leaders were given a target of enrolling four lakh, new members.
BJP State unit chief K Laxman has expressed displeasure over the progress of the membership drive in Hyderabad. Former MLA M Dharma Rao told Express that they are still calculating how many people enrolled via SMS where net connection was not available. “We are expecting the membership to cross 15 lakh by August 25,” he said.