‘The number exceeded the target as there is great enthusiasm about the BJP among the masses’

The BJP on Thursday announced that it had, through a six-week membership drive, managed to increase the recruitment into the party by nearly 50%, or nearly seven crore new members. The conclusion of the drive on August 20 signalled the start of its internal poll process.

At a press briefing at the BJP headquarters, its working president J.P. Nadda said a new party president would be elected by December.

Mr. Nadda said the process of collection of data on the new members was on and once it ended, the party's total membership would be 18 crore.

“The online registration for membership is at 5,81,34,242 crore, which is already 50% more than our current membership; offline registrations are at 62,32,957 lakh; and matched up with the missed call membership drive, the total number of new members will be around 7 crore,” he said.

The target of new membership was at 2.2 crore over the11 crore-membership that was done in 2015. The number exceeded the target as there was “great enthusiasm” about the BJP among the masses.

Among the States where the membership drive exceeded expectations was West Bengal, where 80 lakh new members have joined. In Jammu and Kashmir, it was six lakh (no separate figures were provided for Jammu and the Valley).

‘Enthusiasm among women in J&K’

Former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who has been in-charge of the membership drive, to a query on Jammu and Kashmir, said young women in the newly formed Union Territory had shown enthusiasm in joining the party. “The Sher-e-Kashmir Convention Centre in Srinagar was packed when our drive was on,” he said.

“At the conclusion of the membership drive, the process of internal elections will begin in September from the booth level onwards, and once 50% of these booth, district and State level polls are done, a new national party president will be elected, around December,” said Mr Nadda.

The latest membership drive started on July 6, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah launching it from Varanasi and Telangana respectively on party ideologue Syama Prasad Mookerjee's birth anniversary.