With eye on polls, UP BJP to enroll over 1.5 cr new members

New Delhi, Sep 10 (IANS) With an eye on the Assembly elections scheduled in Uttar Pradesh next year, the BJP is planning to enroll over 1.5 crore new members in the politically important state.

Currently, the saffron brigade has over 2.5 crore members in Uttar Pradesh. The 403-member Uttar Pradesh Assembly is likely to go to the polls in February-March next year.

The Vice President of BJP's Uttar Pradesh unit, Vijay Bahadur Pathak, told IANS that as part of its ‘booth jeeto, chunav jeeto' (win booths to win elections) campaign, the party will launch a membership drive to enroll new members before next year's state polls.

"As per the plan, BJP workers will enroll a minimum 100 new members at over 1.53 lakh polling booths in Uttar Pradesh, where the party has a committee. During the membership drive, the party is targeting to enroll a minimum of 1.5 crore members in the state," Pathak said.

"These around 4.25 crore party members will ensure BJP's victory in Uttar Pradesh with a thumping majority. The membership drive will be launched soon," he added.

In the first phase of ‘booth jeeto, chunav jeeto', the BJP has constituted a 21-member committee at the booth level and also held a ‘Satyapan Abhiyan' (verification campaign).

"Out of around 1.63 lakh polling booths in the state, we have formed committees in 1.53 lakh booths. Due to several political issues, the formation of booth-level committees at around 10,000 polling booths has been delayed which will be completed soon," Pathak said.

The saffron party has directed its state units, especially in the five poll-bound states -- Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Manipur and Goa -- to form a 21-member committee of party workers at each polling booth.

This committee will consist of women, youth, Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), Other Backward Caste (OBC) and members from the other sections of the society.

Another UP BJP leader said that over four crore BJP members will secure the votes of their family and friends for the party.

"With the efforts of the old and new members, the party will achieve its target of getting more than 50 per cent votes in the state polls," he claimed.

(Shashi Bhushan can be reached at [email protected])