The Punjab unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is all set to rope in women in large numbers in its membership drive.
The party has decided to organise a three-day special membership campaign, starting from Friday, in Punjab targeting women.
“Our membership drive has received huge response. We have felt that more women should come into party fold as they are also a significant member of the society and they should participate in the democratic process,” Punjab BJP’s Mahila Morcha president Renu Thapar told The Pioneer.
She said that the party’s women cell would organise special three-day camps in all 22 districts of the State, on April 17, 18 and 19, to enroll more and more women members.
The decision was taken during a meeting of party’s Mahila Morcha, presided over by State organisation secretary Ajay Jamwal.
“There is need to being more and more women in the party fold, both young and mature, as all the political parties are giving at least four per cent reservation to the women. We should also make efforts to increase their participation in the party,” added one of the Women Cell members of the party.
She said that the party has three women MlAs — Dr Navjot Kaur Sidhu from Amritsar East, Sukhjit Kaur Sahi from Dasuya, and Seema Kumari from Bhoa — out of the total 12 legislators, which is 25 per cent.
BJP’s all three women MlAs are greenhorns. While Seema Kumari was a complete novice in the politics, Dr Sidhu and Sukhjit Sahi have been in the political arena being the wives of former Amritsar MP Navjot Singh Sidhu and late former MlA Amarjit Singh Sahi, respectively.
Already, the party’s youth wing is aiming at inducting more women in the party fold.
The Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) president Anurag Thakur has all along been stressing on strengthening the party unit by giving fair representation to the ‘fairer sex’.
On a member making spree, the party has claimed of enrolling more than 19 lakh new members.
And now, it is targeting to make 21 lakh new members by the end of this month. For the same, it has fixed April 30 as the last date to enroll members.
After that, in May, the party would hold a Mahasampark Abhiyaan or mega communication campaign between the active and the new members to apprise them of the party’s functioning. In the process, their antecedents would be verified, among other things.
The Abhiyaan would be presided over by the BJP national president Amit Shah.