The West Bengal unit of the Bharatiya Janata Social gathering (BJP) has enrolled 4 million members until January 3 throughout the social gathering’s membership drive within the state, senior leaders stated, including that the deadline for the drive has now been prolonged until January 10 to get extra enrolments.
The Bengal BJP had registered 10 million members over the past six-yearly drive in 2018. (Representational picture)
The drive, which was supposed to finish on November 30, was earlier prolonged by a month. The Bengal BJP had registered 10 million members over the past six-yearly drive in 2018.
“The deadline has been extended again till January 10. We hope to take the number to five or six million by then,” Bengal BJP’s chief spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya advised HT on Sunday.
“The figures were reviewed on Saturday at an internal meeting held in Kolkata by BJP national general secretary Sunil Bansal. He also discussed organisational elections to be held across Bengal after the membership drive ends. The party wants to set up committees for every polling booth in view of the 2026 assembly polls,” stated a BJP chief.
“Only around 2.6 million members were enrolled through the new online process till mid-December, but the last leg witnessed good response from people in north and south Bengal districts bordering Bangladesh. Nadia district has recorded the highest enrollment,” stated the chief who didn’t want to be named.
When it comes to electoral constituency, Nadia district’s Ranaghat North-East meeting section represented by BJP’s Asim Biswas and South Dinajpur district’s Balurghat Lok Sabha constituency represented by BJP state president and Union minister of state Sukanta Majumdar have recorded the best enrollments.
Darjeeling Lok Sabha constituency, the place the social gathering has received 4 instances in a row since 2009, received solely 25,000 enrolments in two months. “Darjeeling people become politically active only during elections. They remain aloof otherwise,” Samik Bhattacharya stated.
“More than the numbers, it is the transparency in the enrollment process that has made us happy,” Sukanta Majumdar stated.
The membership drive needs to be the BJP state unit’s prime goal, Union residence minister Amit Shah had stated in Kolkata on October 27.
“Our biggest goal now is to set up a BJP government in Bengal in 2026. I am saying we will cross the 10 million-mark. This drive in other states means strengthening our organisation but in Bengal it is a mission to end infiltration, rampant corruption, cattle smuggling and insult of women” Shah had stated on the occasion.
With eyes on the 2026 elections, each the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the BJP needed to utilise the October-November festive season to get better their misplaced floor. With instructional establishments and places of work closed due to the annual puja holidays, the TMC held greater than 600 Bijaya sammilani occasions (neighborhood feasts on the finish of Durga puja) whereas the BJP targeted on its six-yearly membership drive.
In 2019, the BJP received 18 of the state’s 42 Lok Sabha seats, in a document efficiency by the social gathering. Within the 2021 state polls, the BJP received 75 of the state’s 294 meeting seats whereas the TMC bagged 215. In final yr’s Lok Sabha polls, the TMC bagged 29 seats whereas the BJP went down from its 18 to 12. The Congress, which received solely two seats in 2019, misplaced former state president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury’s Berhampore constituency.
TMC leaders scoffed on the BJP’s membership drive.
“BJP is good at making tall claims. How does it lose one election after another if it enjoys mass support? People are always with Mamata Banerjee because of her successful development policies,” TMC state normal secretary Kunal Ghosh stated.