BJP membership drive from September 1, usually precedes polls to elect party chief

BJP launches membership drive with target of 10 crore members, starting September 1, 2024, ahead of national president election.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday (August 17, 2024) announced that it would launch the first phase of its membership drive on September 1, a move that usually precedes the election of the national president of the party. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be the first in the BJP to renew his membership under this exercise, sources said.

The dates and timetable for this organisational exercise were decided at a meeting presided over by BJP president J. P. Nadda and attended by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, State unit presidents, national office bearers and party in-charges of States.

“This meeting was to set the timetable for our membership drive and the ways and means of going about it. The membership drive will begin from September 1, and our target is making at least 10 crore members,” said BJP MP Sambit Patra after the meeting. The 10 crore target, smaller than the last known count of BJP members, has been set as there will be no membership drives in poll-bound Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Haryana and Maharashtra in this phase.

“We will be making new members via a missed call for which a phone number will be provided... (there will be) a QR code and members can enroll even through the NaMo app,” said Mr. Patra.

The BJP usually starts the election process for a new party president through a membership drive after which mandal, district and State presidents are elected. Only when 50% of the States complete this exercise, the election for a national president is held. Usually, one candidate approved by the leadership is fielded for that election, and currently, there is speculation that a working president will be announced, who will be elected the next president after November.

Sources said leaders who attended the meeting were given assignments. For example, national secretary Rituraj Sinha has been given charge of this drive in Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat, Ghaziabad MP Atul Garg will look at Uttarakhand and Bihar, general secretary Vinod Tawde will take care of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Goa, Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli, D Purandareshwari will take care of Kerala, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu, and so on.

Sources said the first phase of the membership drive will be from September 1-25, the second phase from October 1-15 and the third from October 16-31. Active and primary membership registers will be prepared from November 1 to 10. It is only when this process will be completed that formal elections for the national president will take place.