BJP to launch membership drive in poll-bound Gujarat, HP

Ahead of assembly polls at the end of 2022, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is carrying out a special membership drive in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh. The party is sending IT Cell chief Amit Malviya to both states this month to do a review of social media war rooms and start membership drives.

Malviya will be in Gujarat on April 25 and 26 and in Himachal Pradesh on April 30, as per sources in the party.

A senior party official said that membership drives in poll-bound states are a routine procedure. “Before we start election preparations in any state, we carry out a concerted push to add new members,” the official said. He added that these drives help the party build a database. Door-to-door campaigns are carried out asking people to join the party.

A leader from Gujarat said that the party already has 1 crore members in the state. “We have 1,29,085 active members in the state, known as sakriya savya workers, who are actively involved in party work at all times,” the leader said. These active workers were given smart cards, IDs for being party members last fortnight. In Himachal, the party has 13 lakh members in its database, a member said.

In Uttar Pradesh, the BJP carried out a similar drive with a target to add at least 1.5 crore members, in addition to the 2.5 crore party workers. Union Minister Amit Shah launched the drive from Lucknow.

The BJP last carried out a nationwide membership drive in 2019, when J P Nadda was the party’s working president, which was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the party added 7 crore members.

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