‘BJP enrolled 70 mn new members’: JP Nadda

The BJP launched its membership drive from Varanasi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s parliamentary constituency, on July 6 and the exercise ended on August 20.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has enrolled about 70 million members to take its membership base to 180 million and will elect party chief Amit Shah’s successor in December, said Jagat Prakash Nadda, the party’s working president.

BJP became the world’s largest political party by increasing its membership base to 110 million in 2016. (HT FILE)

“Only eight countries have population more than BJP’s cadre size,” Nadda announced at a press conference on Thursday.

The BJP launched its membership drive from Varanasi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s parliamentary constituency, on July 6 and the exercise ended on August 20. During the exercise, the BJP’s membership increased by 60%, overshooting the 20% new member limit prescribed in its constitution.

The party added 58 million-plus new members through online methods, and another 6.2 million members through offline procedures. “Some more data is yet to be correlated, and the total figure of new members will be about 70 million,” Nadda said.

The BJP became the world’s largest political party by increasing its membership base to 110 million in 2016.

Nadda claimed 10 million new members were enrolled in West Bengal against a target of 1 million. The BJP surprised rivals and political experts by winning 18 of the state’s 42 parliamentary seats with a vote share of 40.25%. The BJP is aiming to unseat Trinamool Congress in West Bengal in the 2021 assembly election and has weaned away a large number of its workers and leaders.

“We also added 6 lakh new members in Jammu and Kashmir,” Nadda said.

In September, the party will enrol active members – someone who is given a specific target to enrol ordinary members as well as other organizational assignments. Only active members of the BJP are entitled to hold organisational posts.

“The election for booth and mandal committees will be held in October and district units in November,” Nadda said. “The election for the post of national president will take place in December.”

Shah continues to be BJP president though Nadda was appointed the party’s working president in June this year following the Gandhinagar MP’s elevation as home minister in the Narendra Modi government.

Nadda is most likely to replace Shah as full-time president of the BJP. The BJP president has a term of three years, and is entitled to a second term of another three years.