lagging way behind its target of inducting 10 lakh new members in Jharkhand by March 31, the Congress has pushed its deadline even further. The party could reach up to 1.5 lakh mark till date which led the party extending the deadline now by May 15.
Biggest dampener has come from party heavyweights in the State who against tall claims have not responded positively. Baring former Union Minister and ex-MP Subodh Kant Sahay the performance of other leaders have been dismal. Sahay has returned the party office 19,500 forms filled by new members whereas Rajendra Singh has reached up to only 3,186 while present legislative body leader Alamgir Alam has contributed with 4,780 new entrants.
Big zero has come from ex-PCC president and Rajya Sabha member Pradeep Balmuchu, former Minister Mannan Mallik, Furkan Ansari and Kameshwar Baitha. “They have taken thousands of membership forms but have not returned any. We hope that the leaders would be busy in fulfilling the task and the filled forms would be retuned soon,” said PCC general secretary and in-charge of membership drive in the State Alok Dubey on Thursday.
To push the drive, Congress has given target 10,000 new members to be made in each district while the figure for Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Dhanbad and Bokaro is 50,000. On the hindsight, no new name has come till date from Palamau, Garhwa, Gumla, Deoghar, Ranchi Urban, Hazaribagh, Chatra and Koderma.
Also the working committee members at State level have to make at least 2,000 members while the bar for AICC members, former MPs, MlAs and Ministers is kept of 5,000. The party under new set of procedures has decided to go for transparent organisational polls this time starting from booth level to block, district and State. The members included would be eligible to vote in electing party office-bearers, starting July 28.
“The membership drive is important also for the leaders who want to be office bearers. Their contribution is going to be counted as most of the posts would be filled through elections and not by nominations like before,” stressed Dubey. The party would publish preliminary list of members on May 30.
Nevertheless, the party is defending the slow rate of membership on another front while rating the BJP figures as fake. “It is impossible to believe the claims of the BJP which is saying that it has become largest party of the world by crossing over Communist Part of China,” said Dubey.