BJP to launch membership drive on July 15

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will begin a membership drive across the state from July 15. The membership drive is mandatory in the party for the election of its national president as well as state presidents.

Sources said the party has set a target to enrol at least 20 per cent new members during the month-long membership drive that the party has started across the country after three years.

Membership forms have already been sent to the party's six regional offices in the state and their distribution up to the district level will be completed by July 14.

A party leader said that although a second term for incumbent national president Nitin Gadkari had been cleared, a formal election process will be conducted by the end of this year. The national president of the party is elected by state presidents who have to be elected by district presidents.

In UP, the incumbent state president Laxmikant Bajpai was given charge of the state after his predecessor Surya Pratap Shahi resigned, taking moral responsibility for the party's poor show in the Assembly elections in March. Bajpai, an MLA, is working hard and meeting party workers to get elected as state president for the next three years.

As per the existing election process, booth-level members elect their mandal presidents who subsequently elect their district presidents. Across the state, the party has demarcated 1.29 lakh booths and 2,402 mandals.

"Some minor changes in the process for election of state presidents are likely. The decision about the election process and elaborate programme of the membership drive will be taken in a meeting on Thursday," said Devendra Singh Chauhan, state in-charge of the membership drive.

The drive has already started in other states, but got delayed in UP in view of the ongoing local body elections. The party will focus on the drive after the counting of votes scheduled on July 7.

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