BJP aims to raise West Bengal membership to over 1 crore

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch the BJP’s membership drive from his parliamentary constituency, Varanasi, on July 6,  the birth anniversary of party ideologue Syama Prasad Mookerjee. BJP president Amit Shah, who is also the Union home minister, will kick it off in Hyderabad. Former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, convener of the membership drive, apprised BJP MPs at the parliamentary party meeting about the drive to expand the party’s base.

The BJP aims to increase the number of its members by 20 per cent, which is 2.20 crores. It is also aiming to double its membership to over one crore in West Bengal, where it has significantly increased its parliamentary seats from two to 18 out of 42 in the recent Lok Sabha elections.

West Bengal BJP chief Dilip Ghosh said after a meeting of key leaders from the state that it has over 42 lakh members in the state and will work to increase it to over one crore during the membership drive.

Mr  Ghosh said the BJP had got over 2.3 crore votes in West Bengal in the Lok Sabha polls, its highest ever, and that was why it had fixed an ambitious target of over one crore members.  The saffron party has emerged as a key challenger to the ruling Trinamul Congress in the coming state Assembly elections that are due to be held in 2021.