BHUBANESWAR : The BJD will hold its organisational elections in January, convenor of the party’s membership drive committeeAtanu Sabyasachi Nayaksaid here on Monday.
Addressing a media conference, Nayak said the details of the polls will be worked out as soon as the membership drive is over.
“The membership drive launched on October 31 has been satisfactory so far and steps are being taken to achieve the target of one crore enrolment by December 21. Party president Naveen Patnaik has also reviewed the progress of the drive twice in the last four days,” he said.
Nayak said reports from all the district committees are being obtained and examined by the party’s coordination committee chairperson Debi Prasad Mishra. After verification and scrutiny, Mishra will submit the report to the party president. The final list of members will be released subsequently, he said.
The BJD had set a target to more than double its membership and enrol more than one crore members by the end of the membership drive. The regional outfit had enrolled 47 lakh members during the last exercise in 2022.
Meanwhile, the party continues to witness widespread desertions at the grassroots level. More than 200 leaders and workers including some sarpanchs and former sarpanchs from Jajpur district, which was considered a BJD stronghold, joined the BJP on Monday.
Similarly, Tilottama Muduli, chairperson of Jeypore block in Koraput district, joined BJP along with her supporters.