On Saturday, at a wedding in Kamarhati, the BJP state in-charge of its membership drive, Samik Bhattacharya, presented a gift to the bride. As a return gift, she expressed her desire to become a BJP member and promptly gave a missed call from her phone to the party's number.
"After the bride became a member in front of everyone, many wedding guests expressed their desire to join. We set up a makeshift camp and enrolled 20 new members. The number could have been higher but as we were getting late, we had to leave,” Bhattacharya said.
Bhattacharya is not alone. Senior Bengal BJP leaders such as state president Sukanta Majumdar, leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari, former state presidents Dilip Ghosh and Rahul Sinha, and MLA Agnimitra Paul are going door-to-door even on Sundays to find party members.
Sources in the BJP revealed that in the first 15 days since Union home minister Amit Shah relaunched the membership drive in Bengal on October 28, the party has managed to get only 19.5 lakh members. Nearly half are renewals.
With the November 30 deadline for the "1 crore" members looming charge, desperation among state-level BJP leaders is growing.
Party sources reveal that they are far from meeting its target in Bengal and may face pressure from the central leadership at the national review meeting on November 20 in New Delhi. There, they must present full documentation for at least 50 per cent of the 1 crore goal. The state unit is likely to be represented by Majumdar and Bhattacharya.
The BJP’s membership drive is the party’s constitutional provision conducted every five to six years where everybody takes new memberships, including existing party members.
The BJP membership drive, launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 2, is set to end on November 30, unless an extension is given to Bengal, where the drive began late due to state leaders' involvement in other Bengal-related issues.
"We have barely reached a quarter of the target so far where new members have been around 9 lakhs. With only 13 days remaining, it seems impossible to reach 50 per cent of the target. While we previously managed to enroll nearly 88 lakh members from Bengal (in 2018-19), reaching anywhere near that figure seems impossible this time,” a senior BJP leader, not wanting to be named, said.
Sources said that the BJP central leadership, dissatisfied with the sluggish pace in Bengal, has issued a stern warning to state leaders. National general secretary Sunil Bansal, at a virtual meeting recently, urged them to improve efforts on the ground or face the risk of getting sidelined in the party's scheme of things.
Bansal, overseeing Bengal, Telangana and Odisha, is known for his result-driven approach.
In haste, the BJP state leadership identified 11 target groups including college students, women’s self-help groups, tea garden workers, winners and losers in panchayat polls, priests and auto drivers, and announced a "Mega Membership Drive", mandating participation from all party functionaries.
"We received over 50 lakh missed calls but making a member after getting the missed call is a time-consuming process. We are distributing the calls to mandals and booth-level committees,” a senior BJP leader said.
A political observer said the BJP faced a serious challenge in establishing grassroots connect in Bengal. "With over 500 of its mandals non-functional, the party's organisational presence is minimal in at least 10 districts. These areas lack the infrastructure needed for grassroots outreach," he said.
