Even as the party’s membership drive will continue till the month-end, BJP national president Amit Shah on Monday asked party workers to reach out to its new members to deflate Opposition’s “disinformation campaign” against its Government. Shah has asked the party workers to apprise new party members of BJP’s history, ideology and “the positive work” accomplished by the Modi-dispensation in the last ten months.
Addressing a workshop of its State conveners for the party’s “Mahasampark Abhiyaan’ (mega-outreach campaign), to be launched on May 1, he said the party, which polled over 17 crore votes in the 2014 lok Sabha, has also created a history by driving its membership to 10-crore figure. He said that India has attained a special and “respectable place” in the world by following “our ideology” during the last ten months.
The world was looking at India with “great expectations” and this should be communicated to new members by the party workers. “There is a major disinformation campaign launched by Opposition against our Government to spread lies about its work. This major outreach campaign will take on this disinformation campaign and take the truth to the people. “Whosoever tries to spread lies against us, the 10 crore members of the party will fan out across the country and tell the truth to the people. Public outreach has the biggest impact and our 10 crore members will reach out to the 100 crore people in the country,” Shah said.
He termed the Abhiyaan a “samudra manthan” (churning of the ocean that will throw up dedicated party workers from among its new members who will lay a strong foundation to take BJP to newer heights. The BJP campaign will start from May 1 with the aim to turn the new members into party workers. It will run for three months till July 31. As part of it, party leaders will reach out to the new members and try and convince them to become party workers, said the BJP president.
“The nearly 10 crore new members are well-wishers of the party. Through this Abhiyaan, these party members will be converted into party workers to strengthen the organisation,” he said, adding from August 1, another campaign will be launched wherein the party will select 15 lakh dedicated party workers and give them training in politics.
With 15 lakh new trained workers and 10 crore members , the BJP would complete its political journey , he said. Shah said though there are 1600 parties in the country, the BJP was the only political party with "internal democracy" which ensures organisational polls and new membership every two years and renewal of membership every six years.