VIJAYAWADA: The TDP, which launched a membership drive on October 26, has set a record by enrolling 73 lakh new members as on December 14.
TDP supremo and Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, who visited the party headquarters on Saturday, held a meeting with Telugu Desam leaders, and took stock of the ongoing membership drive.
On being informed about the enrolment of 73 lakh new members, Naidu congratulated the TDP rank and file for achieving the record. The drive is being conducted under the aegis of TDP national general secretary and HRD and IT Minister Nara Lokesh.
Out of the total 73 lakh new members, 85,000 are from the neighbouring Telangana State. Rajampet Assembly constituency has topped the list in the State by enrolling 1.18 lakh new members, followed by Nellore with 1.06 lakh, Kuppam with 1.04 lakh, Palakollu with 1.02 lakh and Mangalagiri with 90,000.
Expressing satisfaction over the effective implementation of the membership drive, the TDP supremo vowed to build a strong army of party activists, and exhorted the cadre to strive to ensure that one in every four persons in the State takes the party membership. He promised to empower the party cadre politically and financially, besides extending welfare benefits to them.
Stressing the need to take the welfare schemes and development programmes closer to the party rank and file, Naidu vowed to increase their per capita income.
Besides giving priority to those who are striving hard for strengthening the TDP, he said steps will be taken make the families of party cadre financially strong. He also reviewed the activities of other TDP wings at the meeting.
The Chief Minister announced that all the pending bills of the Neeru - Chettu and MGNREGA, which were kept pending by the previous YSRCP regime due to political vendetta, will be cleared soon.
Ministers K Atchannaidu, Payyavula Keshav and Nimmala Rama Naidu have been entrusted with the task of clearing all the pending bills as per the government norms.