The BJP top leadership will hold a meeting with state presidents and general secretaries from across the country on Saturday in New Delhi, kickstarting the party’s membership drive, to be followed by election of its office-bearers from local- to state-level committees. While some delegates who will attend the meeting said organisational discussions will involve polls to committees at the local, mandal, district, regional and state levels, a few said they do not rule out a bigger announcement. This comes amid the buzz in recent weeks that the party may appoint a working president, paving the way for current president J P Nadda, who was recently elected to the Rajya Sabha and appointed Union Health Minister, to gradually move away from organisational responsibilities. One expectation is that the BJP may decide on a working president before the coming RSS coordination meeting with affiliated organisations in Palakkad, Kerala, at the end of August. “A new working president may be in place around the time the RSS’s coordination meeting happens in August-end at Palakkad in Kerala. (Saturday’s) meeting will be about the membership drive and organisational elections from the local committee to the state level. The working president will most likely come around month-end after the formality of approval from the Parliamentary Board, and is likely to be someone who is an organisational man, and is trusted both by the BJP central leadership and the RSS,” said a BJP leader who is known to have his ear close to the ground when it comes to the party’s workings. Some others were, however, less sure. “We know that there will be instructions from the central leadership on the membership drive and organisational elections… But nothing can be ruled out,” said a state BJP office-bearer. One state general secretary said they were expecting the elections at all levels to feature in the discussions. Another state office-bearer, however, said there would be nothing on the national presidential election on Saturday, as this was not the forum for it. There have been meetings of party leaders in states in the run-up to the meeting to set membership targets. For instance, the Bihar BJP, which has 80 lakh members, is learnt to have set an ambitious target of 1.5 crore members. “Till now there is no clarity on how the membership drive will take place – whether there will be online membership, missed calls, a paper membership, or a combination of these. We await instructions from the central leadership on this at the Delhi meeting,” said a state office-bearer. After Saturday's meeting, the party will launch an extensive membership drive wherein existing members will also renew their membership, and also add to the membership pool by at least 20% to ensure organisational expansion. This detailed exercise, in which existing members also renew their memberships, happens once every nine years. While the working president can be appointed by the Parliamentary Board of the party, the full-time president’s election – the working president is likely to be elected full-time president too – is expected to happen as per procedure laid down in the BJP’s constitution. As always, the elections to the party’s local committees will be held first, followed by polls for the mandal, district, regional and state committees. The president elected at each level will nominate a team of office-bearers. Once elections to half the states are held, the election of the full-time national president takes place as per the BJP’s long-established practice. The new national president then nominates a team of office-bearers.
