Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Union Ministers Amit Shah, Jagat Prakash Nadda and Kiren Rijiju
Credit: PTI Photo
New Delhi: A new membership drive and organisational elections from the mandal level will begin within the BJP in the next two or three weeks, as part of a long-winding process to elect the new president of the party.
Sources in the party said that the membership drive, or sadasyata abhiyaan, will begin in a few days and workers will be asked to fan out so that they can ask more people to join the party. The drive will be available offline as well as online.
As per the rules, a prospective member has to pay Rs 200 to become a permanent member. Permanent members are eligible to vote in the mandal as well as district level elections.
The last time such a membership drive had taken place was in 2021. The BJP claims to be the “largest party” in the world. In 2019, then working president J P Nadda had said in a press conference that the party has 18 crore members, an increase of over 7 crore members from 2015 when it had 11 crore members.
DH had earlier reported that Nadda, who had an extension till June as the current president, will be given another extension to oversee the polls for the party president. He is likely to be aided by working presidents; Nadda himself was a working president when Amit Shah was party president.
As per the BJP’s constitution, after the membership drive, the party will form booth committees and the presidents of these committees will then elect the presidents across mandals.
Mandals then vote for district committees who, in turn, will vote for state committees. Only when 50 per cent of state units have a committee, can the party elect a national president. The process is likely to end by year end, said those in the know.
The BJP’s performance in the recently-concluded Lok Sabha polls added to J P Nadda’s comment that the BJP is “saksham” (capable) without the RSS could mean that the party’s current leadership alone will not be able to decide who gets the top job.
While organisational men Sunil Bansal and Vinod Tawde are the front-runners for the top position, sources in the RSS said that having a woman or Dalit president could prove to be beneficial for the party.