BJP targets 14 lakh new members in city

New Delhi: The booth-level workers of the Delhi BJP will try to enlist 14 lakh new members in the party in over a month long nationwide membership drive scheduled to begin from July 6.

The party has designated five workers at each polling booth as 'Panch Parmeshwars' (booth-level workers) who will serve as a link between the party and the voters living in the area covered by the booth.

Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari said the membership drive in the national capital will be different from other states where aim is to add 20 per cent new members to the existing numbers.

"The membership campaign will be general in nature in which we will work to make around 14 lakh new members which is more than 20 percent target set for other states," Tiwari said. Presently, the BJP has around 27 lakh members in its Delhi unit.

In Delhi, there are 13,816 polling booths and about 58,000 booth-level workers, Harsh Malhotra, the co-incharge of the membership drive in Delhi, said. "Given that each Panch Parmeshwar enrolls 50 new members during the campaign, we will be in a comfortable position to achieve the target," he said.

Ahead of the 2017 municipal polls, the BJP had appointed five 'panch parmeshwar' in each of total 13,816 polling booths in the national capital. The saffron party, which has been out of power in Delhi for over two decades, is expecting a comeback in the wake of party's massive victory here in the recent Lok Sabha polls. "The membership drive will boost our chances in Assembly polls, as more workers will translate into stronger ground level presence and better voter connect," Tiwari said.

The BJP won all seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi. It won in over 12,000 of the total 13,816 polling booths which together mean victory in 65 of the total 70 Assembly segments in Delhi. In the membership drive, Tiwari said a special focus will be on 1,200 polling booths where the party's presence was weak.

BJP parliamentary party meeting tomorrow

The first meeting of the BJP parliamentary party during the ongoing session will be held on July 2, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi expected to lay down the agenda for its near 380 MPs, the highest-ever saffron tally in Parliament.

Apart from the significance of the ongoing session, in which his government will present it first budget and also hopes for the passage of many bills, Modi may also speak about key decisions his dispensation has taken since it assumed power in May.

Though there has been no official word about its agenda, it has been customary in the parliamentary party meeting to facilitate Modi following his return from any significant international event. He returned to India on Saturday after attending the G-20 Summit in Japan.

It will also be the first time in many decades that BJP veterans L K Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi will not be present in the BJP meeting as the party did not field them in Lok Sabha polls on the ground of 75-year age bar it introduced for its candidates. The first meeting was scheduled for June 25 but called off following the death of Rajasthan BJP president and Rajya Sabha member Madan Lal Saini. The BJP won an unprecedented 303 seats in the General Elections.