Sizing up BJP’s astronomy with membership drive

BJP chases elusive 18 crores membership goal

By Mansh Anand

New Delhi, September 2: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is beginning membership drive from today. The BJP aims to enlist 18 crore members. In the last four years, the BJP’s aim to expand membership has remained fixed at 18 crores.

The BJP is armed with several new-age tools to spearhead the membership drive. The BJP president Jagat Prakash Nadda aims to say adieu as the chief of the party by announcing that the party is now 18 crore members strong.

In January 2020, Nadda had also set a target to expand the membership of the party to 18 crores. After the 2015 membership drive, the BJP had claimed to have come become the world’s largest political party.

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There is no scope for an independent verification of the claims of the BJP on its membership strength. The political parties continue to be outside the scope of the Right to Information Act (RTI).

But the BJP’s sticking to an 18 crores membership target for several years has often invited banter from within the party ranks. Membership drive is a part of process in the BJP ahead of the ‘election’ for the post of the president.

Before 2020, the BJP leaders often said that the party had already achieved the 18 crores membership strength. “Within the party, it was stressed that the membership claims made after the 2015 be authenticated with data verification. The scope of duplicity and errors remains humongous,” said a senior BJP functionary.

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The BJP is not known to have released the authenticated data of the membership after the 2015 drive. The BJP polled 23.47 crores votes in the 2020 Lok Sabha elections. The BJP had polled 22.9 crore votes in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

The BJP polled 69 lakhs more votes in 2024 against the 2019 poll. The BJP vote share saw a decline of 0.7 per cent, from 37.3 per cent (2019) to 36.6 per cent (2024).

If the BJP’s claims of membership strength are to be believed, then the party is winning lesser votes from outside own tent.

The Business Standard on January 14, 2020 quoted Nadda, saying that the BJP membership strength “will grow to 180 million with 70 new members after the conclusion of the campaign”. Nadda’s statement meant that the BJP had a membership strength of 11 crore before the launch of the 2020 drive.

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After four years, Nadda is once again aiming to hit the 18 crores membership base. By polling little over 23 crore votes in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP invites the scrutiny on the size of non-members voting for the party.

While the BJP claims that its member base is swelling, the saffron outfit banks heavily on turncoats on elections. The BJP ranks have become rebellious in Jammu and Kashmir after the party gave Assembly tickets to turncoats, including one who had joined only two days ago.

The BJP has kept all doors to its tent open in Jharkhand. The BJP has even inducted former state chief minister Madhu Koda. He was convicted in 2017 in coal scam.

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About The Author

Manish Anand

Manish Anand is a senior journalist with more than two decades of hardcore reporting on beats such as Prime Minister’s Office, Parliament, BJP, Congress, Planning Commission, NITI Aayog, and scores of Union Ministries.

His past has been with The New Indian Express, The Asian Age/Deccan Chronicle, and The Statesman.

For about 15 years, Manish was also a regular commentator and host for talks on AIR on foreign affairs.

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