HYDERABAD: At a time local body elections loom, the Telangana unit of the BJP is riding a wave of confidence, having added 36 lakh new members in the state, marking the highest membership figure ever in the state. Naturally, BJP seniors believe that the bolstering of its ranks has given it ammunition to aggressively take on the Congress and BRS in the state and even ride to power in the next Assembly elections.
The party high command had fixed a target of 40 lakh members in the state and the Telangana unit has come within striking distance of this goal.
BJP membership drive in-charge for Telangana and former MLC N Ramchander Rao said that he expects the number of members to increase by another lakh.
“We are expecting these new members from about 25 to 30 mandals, mostly in tribal areas, which were not added to the final tally due to connectivity issues,” he said.
The BJP has taken up this edition of the membership drive in digital mode. The party had also launched a “missed call” facility, wherein anyone interested in becoming a saffron party member could give a missed call to a well-advertised phone number. BJP functionaries would return the call, take details of the caller and submit the data online.
Ramachander Rao said that some of the party leaders were able to convince between 1,000 to 16,000 members, as shown by the referral codes used by the new joinees.
With the membership drive a resounding success, the saffron party is now focusing on strengthening its booth committees to solidify its organisation and convert this membership into a loyal vote bank. This is expected to benefit the party in the upcoming local body elections.
It may be mentioned here that the Telangana unit of the BJP managed to attract 11 lakh new members in the last such drive. This time around, the membership drive was taken up in mission mode, with the party’s representatives in the Union Cabinet, MPs, MLAs and MLCs, as well as seniors, taking an active part in the drive.
The party also put up hoardings and signboards and tried different ways to reach out to the citizens and get them to join its ranks.