Gujarat BJP’s Membership Drive Getting a Flat Tyre?

For a political party that has been ruling over Gujarat for almost three decades, getting two crore members under its fold should be an easy task. More so when Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah hail from the state.

However, it appears to be an uphill task for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). A fortnight ago, Union Jal Shakti Minister and Gujarat BJP president gave party workers a target to enrol two crore members from the state during the ongoing membership drive.

Call it anti-incumbency, or the failure of the state party leadership after Modi moved to New Delhi as the Prime Minister in 2014, the membership drive does not appear to be going smoothly at all.

No wonder then that various instances are coming to light where the party has reportedly applied strange methods for its membership drive.

Even before the controversy over Kumari M R Gardi Secondary and Higher Secondary School in Wadhwan Taluka asking students to get the mobiles to school has died down, an instance of IPS School in Surendranagar urging students to become BJP members has come to light.

Highly placed sources told The Citizen that in both the schools a few children and their parents have been made members.

While the BJP’s Gujarat media convener Yagnesh Dave conveniently did not talk about the other school, he alleged that one Congressman is associated with the school in Wadhwan and this was done to malign the party’s image as the party is doing in Surendranagar district.

The Principal of the School was on leave when the incident happened. In reply to notice slapped by the District Education Officer, the School has held that they were asked to bring the mobiles to aid linking of ration cards with Aadhaar cards.

The School has further stated that the students may have used the link on their own to check how parents can join the party.

Two crore is the new target for the partymen. Last time, the BJP had 1.19 crore members in Gujarat.

The IPS School, another school in Surendranagar, is also on the radar. In this case, cooperation of class IV students was allegedly sought to enrol as primary members of the BJP.

If true, what is more embarrassing for the BJP is an allegation by the Aam Aadmi Party MLA from Dediapada Chaitar Vasava. A couple of days ago, Vasava alleged that government employees, including officers, have been made members.

Without naming a taluka development officer of the area, Vasava said that the TDO claimed that they had got targets from the District Development Officers. The targets at different levels range from a few hundred to a few thousand.

Vasava, a firebrand tribal leader, threatened that he would launch an agitation if action was not taken against the officers. To support the claim, the party also released a few identity cards that were newly made.

Gujarat AAP’s president Isudan Ghadvi told The Citizen that the BJP must resort to such tactics as people are unhappy with the party after 30 years of rule. He feared that the BJP would now give targets to collectors as well.

Ghadvi categorically said that a government servant cannot become a member of any political party. “He can choose whom he wants to vote for, but he cannot become a member,” he said.

Dave, however, defended that a government servant has a right to choose a political party’s ideology and he/she can become a primary member. They are not becoming “sakriya sadasya” (active members), he averred.

Amid this controversy, the numbers claimed by political parties are always doubtful. Take for example the BJP. When the last Lok Sabha elections were held, the party had 1.19 crore members in Gujarat and the party secured only 1.88 crore.

Paatil had claimed that the party would score a hat-trick by winning all the 26 LS seats and that too with a victory margin of 5 lakh on each of the seats. Neither happened.

The Congress managed to put a break on the BJP’s clean sweep as its candidate Geniben Thakor won from Banaskantha.

The Congress’ victory in the BJP’s model state is considered important as the saffron party has a solid network till the booth level, unlike that of the Congress. Moreover, the BJP also has page committee members and page committee presidents. These pages refer to electoral roll pages.

In 2022, the 81 lakh page committee members and 15 lakh page committee members. The job of these members is to remain in live contact with people in their neighbourhood, redress their grievances from time to time, make them aware of various government schemes and during the time of elections ensure if they have voted or not.

The BJP’s declining popularity is certainly an issue, and it could be seen when residents of Vadodara lambasted party’s politicians after the man-made floods recently.

Vadodara is a citadel of sorts for the BJP and Modi won LS in 2014 from there. However, he had preferred to represent Varanasi in the Lower House.

Gujarat Congress spokesperson Hiren Banker alleged that the BJP had resorted to similar tactics last time as well because its popularity is on the decline, and it is difficult to achieve the targets given.

He added that “the BJP is experiencing a situation like a multi-organ failure in Gujarat with things collapsing at all levels”.