BJP to aim for 17 lakh membership

Tribune News Service

Jammu, June 18

The BJP state president Ravinder Raina has said that since the party got 17 lakh votes in the recently concluded parliamentary polls, for the Assembly elections, it will enroll 17 lakh members to win 50 seats with the Chief Minister coming from the BJP only.

Raina said the party was in top gear at booth levels to gear up men and machinery for the polls which could be announced anytime in the state.

“If the parliamentary polls were held in a peaceful and smooth manner, I do not see why the Assembly polls could not be conducted in such a manner? We are fully prepared and will win 50 seats to give Chief Minister from the BJP,” said Raina.

The BJP state president also said that the delimitation of the state assemblies was the most important issue and if it happened before the Assembly polls, the party would be well placed to emerge as the single largest party in the state.

He, however, added that in the absence of the delimitation also, the party would perform better than 2014 and get the lion’s share in the Assembly election outcome.

“We are ahead of the other political parties in vote share in the parliamentary polls. Our focus only is to raise over present membership strength from five lakh to 17 lakh, for which all our leaders and workers are on ground working tirelessly,” said Raina, adding that national president Amit Shah’s hope of 35 seats would be fulfilled by getting 50 seats in the Assembly elections.

He said encouraging results in the vote share from Ladakh and Srinagar in the parliamentary polls were a welcome sign for the party.

“We are hopeful of making inroads in Kashmir by getting three-four seats, while in Ladakh also our performance will be noteworthy,” claimed Raina.

Party sources said besides hoping for the delimitation to happen, the state BJP was also banking on the rotation of the reserved seats which might produce results in their favour.

“The BJP is also toying with the idea of rotating reserved Assembly seats to further strengthen its base in the Jammu province. The party is hopeful that it will increase its winning tally from the previous 25 Assembly seats,” said the sources.