BJP membership an ideological movement: PM Modi

The PM asked the party to focus on increasing the membership of women, young people, tribal communities and people in border villages.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is not an election machine, but a medium of fulfilling the aspirations of the people, and the party’s membership drive is not a mere number game, but an “ideological and emotional movement” said Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the launch of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s national membership drive in New Delhi on Monday. (ANI Photo)

The PM –– who renewed his membership and became the first party functionary to be enrolled as a member –– asked the party to focus on increasing the membership of women, young people, tribal communities and people in border villages.

He said the party had come a long way from when it had just two members in Parliament and its workers were mocked for being constantly on the move to increase the party’s footprint.

“When someone is born in our family, we feel happy; when a daughter-in-law comes into our family after marriage, then the joy of the expansion of the family is there... when a new member joins, then there is the joy of family expanding. This membership campaign is not a game of numbers. This membership campaign... is an ideological and emotional movement for us,” Modi said at an event to mark the beginning of the membership drive in Delhi.

Setting a challenge for the party to expand in areas where it has little or no support, the PM said, the membership drive should begin from the weakest polling station, where the party got the least votes. “It’s easy to gain members where the BJP is popular, but we must work harder in challenging areas to spread our influence and gain support,” he said.

Recalling the hardship faced by the workers in the initial years, the PM said when he was not in politics, during the era of the Jana Sangh (the precursor to the BJP), workers used to paint the symbol, a deepak (lamp), on walls with great enthusiasm, but political opponents used to mock them.

“They used to joke in their speeches that one cannot reach the corridors of power by painting lamps on walls... We are those people who painted lotus on the walls with conviction, because we believed that the lotus painted on the walls will someday get painted on hearts as well,” he said.

Referring to the party’s struggle to get a toehold in states where there was little support, he said in some states where the BJP was still struggling to establish its ideology, party workers were mocked for having on foot on the rail, one in jail.

The PM also underlined that the membership drive is happening in a period that will also see the implementation of 33% reservations for women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies, and urged party members to enrol as many women as possible to make them future leaders of the party.

“Can we include all those individuals who can help the party ensure that the maximum number of women are elected as MLAs and MPs?” he asked.

The young generation as BJP members would be the “biggest source of strength” for the party to fulfil the resolve of making India a developed country by 2047, Modi added.

Party president JP Nadda, who enrolled the PM as a member, said when Amit Shah was the party president, he had given priority to the membership campaign. “He had said that we will change the path of the organisation, we will change the methods of the organisation, so that we can include more and more people in the party who want to walk with the lotus symbol,” he said.

Shah credited Modi for institutionalising the membership drive. He said when Modi was a sangathan mantri (organisational general secretary), and had to oversee the membership drive in Gujarat, he ensured that the data of every member was computerised. “He made s record of all those who enrolled, there was data on how many were farmers, women, rural and how many were from the urban and rural areas... that is how Gujrat sangathan was made,” Shah said.