The Bengal BJP’s ambitious plan to have one crore members — both renewals and new names — from the state within 90 days seems to have gone awry.

The Bengal BJP unit could collect only 3 lakh members in the first 45 days of the three-month membership drive that started across the nation on September 2.

“The ‘Smeanghatan Parva, Sadasyata Abhiyan 2024’ (membership drive program) was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 2. However, due to directives from the central leadership to prioritise anti-government movements, the membership drive has not yet fully picked up steam in Bengal” a senior BJP leader said.

“We remain hopeful that the central leadership will grant us additional time
to achieve our target,” he added.

Party leaders are also hoping that Union home minister Amit Shah, who is set to visit the state on October 24, will launch afresh the membership drive from the Eastern Zonal Cultural Centre in Salt Lake that day.

On that day, the state leaders are also expected to present a road map for recruiting one crore party members to Shah.

“State party president Sukanta Majumdar and 12 party MPs are tasked with enrolling at least 10,000 members each, while the leader of the Opposition in the Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, and all other MLAs have been given a minimum target of 5,000 members each,” another senior BJP leader said.

Additionally, the party has decided to incentivise district-level leaders by granting them permanent membership if they successfully recruit 100 new members each from their respective regions.

“In Bengal, the membership drive has not started in full steam because of the present political situation. Once it starts, we will be able to reach our (one-crore) target,” Bengal BJP’s chief spokesperson, Samik Bhattacharya, said.

Some senior BJP leaders, however, believe that it would be challenging for the party — hampered by weak organisation and factionalism — to reach even the 80-lakh mark achieved during the first mega membership drive that started in 2018 in Bengal.

“Most of the 3 lakh (who became members now) have renewed their existing party membership. There are hardly any new members,” a senior BJP leader said.