Motivated by the performance in the lok Sabha polls and now victory in Haryana Assembly polls, a rejuvenated Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Punjab is planning to enroll 21 lakh members in the State.
The renewed focus on strengthening the party at the grassroots came in the backdrop of indications that the party could go “alone” in the 2017 State Assembly polls, if the situation demanded like that in Maharashtra.
Considering the emphasis of the newly-appointed State party affairs in-charge Ram Shankar Katheria on “strengthening the organisation” rather than its coalition with the SAD, the party’s “mega” membership drive right from the State so the booth level has send alarm bells ringing in the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) camp. The development assumes significance in the wake of ensuing civic body polls. BJP has already made it clear that it would claim more seats from the SAD as compared to its previous share.
During Katheria’s maiden visit after taking over the new assignment mainly focused on expanding the party’s base, reaching out to the unexplored areas and sections, bring into party fold maximum people to strengthen party organisation.
Saffron party’s recent success in the neighbouring Haryana was scripted with its hard efforts to galvanise the cadre down to the grass root level. Encouraged by the same, the party is mainly eyeing to tap the young and new supporters for the party. A special workshop, during his visit, was organised for the party’s district in-charges, head of various morchas and cells, among others to train them for the membership drive, to be initiated in the state on November 9 from Jalandhar.
“The membership drive was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 1, and we’ll be launching it fromNovember 9 in Jalandhar which would continue till March 31, 2015. Online membership is already going on which has been introduced for the first time, and since Wednesday, approximately 30 lakhs members have enrolled in the past six days,” a senior BJP leader told The Pioneer. For Punjab, the target has been fixed at 21 lakh. The state has been divided into 33 districts, which covers a total of 21,450 booths. “We have given the target of 100 members from every booth in all villages, towns and cities, which is compulsory, either personal or online,” the leader said.
To make it a success, the BJP state unit has also decided to hold special four-day camps in all 33 districts. Party’s state leadership, including state president Kamal Sharma, will also be available on one of these camps, the BJP leader said.
The monthly report regarding the membership drive would also be sent to the party high command. This is not all! Katheria has also maintained that to strengthen the party base in the state and to take stock of the party’s situation, he would be touring all districts and assembly segments every month starting with Amritsar from the next month.
Even, the party high command has also asked the state unit to focus on district, block and booth levels which should be covered 100 per cent. The elections to 122 municipal councils and six municipal corporations in the state are scheduled to beheld somewhere in December. The party has already asked its cadre to focus on the areas that have remained untouched, so far, in the state. It is primarily focusing on reaching out to a total of 12,673 villages across the state, while not only limiting itself to the cities and towns.