Kolkata: Riding high on confidence, the Narendra Modi-powered Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has set an ambitious target of enrolling at least 1 crore people in West Bengal by March 31, 2015.
The decision was taken during a meeting attended by BJP president chief Amit Shah and West Bengal unit chief Rahul Sinha and state-in-charge Siddharth Nath Singh.
With eyes set on TMC-ruled West Bengal, the BJP will launch the membership drive on November 30 when party president Amit Shah will also address a rally at Esplanade in Kolkata.
The BJP is desperately trying to make inroads into the eastern state where it has never been a major player.
Interestingly, the BJP has also dispatched Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi to campaign for the party. The message is clear – the party doesn't want to present an anti-Muslim image as Bengal has a sizeable number of the minority community.
Reports say that the BJP plans to corner the Trinamool Congress on Saradha chit fund scam. The party, which is on a golden run under PM Modi's leadership, also plans to link Mamata with Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh, a terror outfit spreading its wings in Bengal.
West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee has alleged that the BJP is "trying to incite communal violence" in the state. The BJP will lose future elections if regional parties come together, Banerjee said on Tuesday.
BJP eyes 10 crore new members
Seeking to capitalise on the people’s support for the party in the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections, the BJP launched an ambitious membership drive on November 03 to enrol 10 crore new members. The party has 3.25 crore members at present.
Launching the drive, Prime Minister Narendra Modi used the digital media to register himself as the first member of the party he had “grown up with.
