CHANDIGARH: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is in an aggressive mood in Punjab. It is seemingly all set to go alone in the next assembly elections and taking ahead its membership drive in full force. It made five lakh members in the state in a month, crossing the figure of 3.5 lakh members to hit the target of 21 lakh members—the highest ever in the state. Given its strained ties with SAD, the BJP is trying to expand even as the allies try to forge into the other’s territory and vote base. SAD is trying to expand in urban areas and BJP in rural.
Apart from using Narendra Modi as the mascot for its enrolment campaign, the party is also using the slogan to make Punjab drug-free. BJP’s target is to enrol at least 100 new members for the 21,000 polling booths here.
Encouraged by the response, the party is using social media, 2,000 Facebook pages that party workers say get two lakh hits per day, 600 WhatsApp groups, 1.50 crore SMS messages, camps organised by different wings of the party on specific days outside religious organisations, courts, markets, and educational institutions to increase its numbers.
According to Punjab BJP President Kamal Sharma, the party has got a spectacular response in rural areas across the state, especially in the Malwa region, a stronghold of the Akali Dal. “Following the direction of the high command, the workers at the grass root level are meeting every section of the society and the party’s different wings were also performing the given task with full sincerity,’’ he said.
“A day to day monitoring from the control room is done. The membership is for six years and is now being done by dialling a toll free number,’’ says Punjab BJP Vice President Rajinder Mohan Singh Chinna.
Many BJP leaders sought a split with the Shiromani Akali Dal because them feel their ministers and MLAs have no say in the government. The BJP may repeat its Haryana strategy in Punjab for the 2017 assembly poll. Katheria has already hinted the party may go it alone if it faces a Haryana-like situation.
The BJP wants more seats in the 128 municipalities. It has its vote bank in category A and B cities while SAD’s is in the smaller towns. BJP is demanding a bigger share of seats—at least 50 per cent in the municipal polls staking claim for the mayorship in Patiala, Ludhiana and Bathinda municipal corporations. It already has mayors in Amritsar and Jalandhar.
The void between BJP and SAD widened after the recent Haryana Assembly polls where SAD supported BJP’s main rival INLD. BJP National President Amit Shah will visit Amritsar on December 25 to take stock of the ongoing membership drive.