A senior citizen was recently unsure how to respond when she received a call from a prominent BJP leader from south Calcutta, asking her to give a missed call to a specific number intended to connect her to the party’s database as part of the BJP's statewide membership drive.

“I have known the leader personally for a long time, so it was hard to refuse, but I never wanted to be affiliated with any political party. I was truly confused and unsure how to handle the situation,” the woman, who didn’t want to disclose her identity, said.

The call to this woman was not an isolated one. Bengal BJP is now desperately trying to reach the milestone of one crore membership in less than a month — a target set by Union home minister Amit Shah during his recent visit to Bengal.

The BJP membership drive, launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 2, is set to conclude on November 30, giving the party's Bengal unit less than a month to complete the enrollment process, unless an extension is granted to Bengal.

The membership drive is the party’s constitutional provision. It is conducted every five to six years, where apart from enrolling new members, all the old members need to renew their membership.

The plan to reach one crore members has become a point of contention between the state and district-level party leaders. Senior BJP leaders believe the target is achievable if district and mandal leaders adhere to the state unit's strategy.

However, grassroots leaders feel it is unrealistic. They also doubt the party will come close to the 87 lakh members enrolled during the 2018 membership drive.

“We have a specific plan and if the MPs, MLAs, the booth level leaders and the mandals work according to our plan then the reaching the target will not be a difficult thing,” BJP Rajya Sabha member Samik Bhattacharya, who has been given the onus of the membership drive in the state, said.

Sources in the party that the BJP has assigned specific membership targets, with each MP responsible for enrolling 10,000 members, each MLA 5,000, and each booth tasked with adding 100 new members.

Currently, the BJP has 1,345 mandals across the state and each of them has been instructed to guide booths within their regions and report on their progress.

The state unit leaders propose that with 14 MPs, 69 MLAs, and 80,530 booths across the state, they could collectively add 90 lakh members. The remaining 10 lakh could be reached by renewing memberships of around 20 active supporters. The BJP is also hoping to recruit an additional 10 lakh members through missed calls.

But it is easier said than done. An internal survey of the BJP, conducted in December 2022, revealed that out of 80,530 polling booths in Bengal, 40 per cent of them — particularly in South Bengal — had committees that were either very weak or existed only on paper.

“Each booth has been tasked with enrolling 100 new members, a goal that is nearly impossible to achieve. We don’t have any presence in at least 30,000 booths mostly in South Bengal from where we can't even get 10 members per booth. The roadmap to one crore members is very superficial and it is unlikely that we will come close to the 87 lakh enrollments we achieved in 2018,” a senior BJP leader said.

The district leaders have reasons to believe because till October 31 the BJP could enroll only 3.5 lakh members, including 2.2 lakh through missed calls, with party sources noting that out of 4.8 missed calls, less half could be converted into official memberships.

“The situation in our state was so poor that the Union home minister had to come to Calcutta to relaunch the membership drive. We could not get anywhere near the target over the past two months, so how can we expect to achieve it in less than a month?” another BJP leader said.

Political observers are of the opinion that it would be challenging for the saffron brigade to reach out to the people at the grassroots.

“With over 500 mandals currently defunct, there is minimal organisational presence in at least 10 districts across the state. These areas lack basic infrastructure needed for door-to-door campaigns or grassroots outreach. While it may appear feasible on paper, in practice it’s nearly impossible,” a Calcutta-based political observer said.