Membership drive of BJP hits minority hurdle in state

“Beginning with around 1.3 lakh members in the state before the Lok Sabha elections, membership has crossed the 15 lakh mark with over seven lakh in Kolkata alone but minority membership is still an issue,” said Pravakar Tewari, party’s state vice-president and in-charge of the drive in Bengal, to The Indian Express on Sunday.

He said that the stumbling blocks had been the Muslim belts in the state and the response was far below compared to what the party had expected.

“Muslim membership is minimum in Murshidabad with 3 per cent while the maximum is 10 per cent in north Kolkata especially in Burrabazar. Even in Kolkata, areas like Metiabruz, Rajabazar, Topsia and Tangra where Muslim population is more, the party is not making a notable progress,” he said.

Others in the party said that Dinesh Sharma, national in-charge, membership drive, had, during the last meeting in Burdwan, set a target of one crore members in Bengal by March 31 but without the participation of Muslims, it would be difficult to achieve the target.

Shakeel Ansari, state president of the BJP minority cell, said that he has been given a target of one lakh. “Dinesh Sharma had given me only one per cent to achieve in comparison to the total state target. Perhaps he knows that it is a difficult task,” he said.

Ansari added that he had been instructed to go around the state and coordinate with district leaders as to how to get more and more Muslims involved but he conceded that the response has been lukewarm so far.

“We will put in more festoons and hoardings in Urdu and street meetings but one of the reasons for the poor response is that in most parts of the state, there are strong Muslim-dominated areas where even putting up a street corner meeting is a tall order. Our supporters are apprehensive as they are getting beaten up especially by TMC workers,” he said, and added that Muslim religious leaders were making it more difficult.

“Most prominent Muslim leaders in the state are saying that Muslims should join any party except BJP. If there is a change in government in 2016, there will be a flood of Muslims joining the saffron brigade,” Ansari said.