The BJP central leadership has extended the deadline for the Bengal membership drive by another 16 days until December 31 and tasked leaders Suvendu Adhikari and Sukanta Majumdar with accelerating efforts to achieve the one crore membership target set for the state.

This is the second time in a month that the Bengal unit of the BJP has received a deadline extension for its membership drive.

The membership drive, which began on September 2 and ended nationally on November 30, was initially extended by 15 days until December 15 for the state unit at the request of state unit chief Majumdar citing delays caused by state leaders’ involvement in pressing matters, including the party’s campaign related to the RG Kar rape and murder case.

However, party sources revealed that till December 12, the Bengal BJP had failed to reach even one-third of their one crore target, prompting the central leadership to grant an additional 16 days till December end.

“Currently, the party has achieved around 30 lakh memberships, making it seem nearly impossible to meet the target by the end of December. In the past, we reached 88 lakh members, largely due to the exceptional organisational skills of Mukul Roy and Dilip Ghosh. At present, we lack leaders with comparable organisational expertise,” admitted a senior party leader.

The BJP central leadership appears to have recognised the current organisational shortcomings.

To give a last-minute boost to the membership drive, the party has entrusted the leader of the Opposition, Adhikari, with mobilising MLAs and state unit chief Majumdar with engaging MPs for the task.

This directive was issued by BJP national general secretary Sunil Bansal — who oversees Bengal, Telangana, and Odisha — during a meeting with the state’s top leadership in early December, where he expressed dissatisfaction with the performance of several MLAs and MPs of the state.

However, only some five lakh members have been added in the last 15 days, raising the total membership to around 30 lakh.

Following the meeting with Bansal, Adhikari held a meeting with leaders considered close to him such as Shankar Ghosh, Agnimitra Paul, Vishal Lama and Bishwanath Karak.

“Suvendu-da, who deliberately keeps away from the administrative affairs of the party, asked us to give our wholehearted effort to contribute significantly to the membership drive.... We promise that in the next few days, there will be a huge increase in membership,” said a senior party leader considered close to Adhikari.

“Over the past 10 days, we have organised more than 500 camps across the state with the participation of all senior party MLAs, which is expected to significantly boost membership numbers,” the party leader added.

Although the central leadership has placed its trust in Adhikari, party sources reveal both East and West Midnapore, his strongholds, are falling short of their targets.

Majumdar seems to be doing better. Membership is brisk in both North and South Dinajpur. South Dinajpur district is in a tight race with Nadia South organisational district for the top spot, with South Dinajpur clocking 1,13,102 members as of last Wednesday, 102 more than its competitor. Majumdar on X congratulated BJP leaders in Nadia South for bringing in members.