A+ A- Hyderabad: The Bhartiya Janta Party today extended its membership drive date by a week. The Membership drive which was launched on July 6 has now again been extended for the third time and will end on August 20 A Workshop ON Active membership three member committee orientation workshop was organized here at Party headquarters at Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Bhavan this morning. Addressing the workshop Dr. Laxman BJP state President called upon his Party leaders and workers to go to districts stay there and get active members enrolled. If there are any disputes to reach out to the Party workers and leaders and settle the issue he said. On the occasion orientation was given to Party three member committees who will over see the membership drive. Also present were Dharma Rao BJP Vice President Rajeshwar Rao BJP senior leader and others. The BJP has not been able to achieve its target of doubling its membership from existing 18 lakhs to another 18 lakhs . It had decided to cross 40lakhs however the Party could not achieve the target due to heavy rains, one day mourning following the death of forner External affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.The Party was of the opinion that if not for these interruptions the Party leaders could have achieved the target of another 18 lakhs goal which it had set for itself . In fact it would have cross the 40 lakh marks . According to a senior BJP leader the Party has completed 10 lakh members and another direct membership by people themselves who have called and directly taken the membership are about 2 lakhs taking the total to 10 lakhs . Another 6 lakh balance it proposes to complete by August 20.Those of whom are getting 50 or more ordinary members are eligible for active membership . The BJP is targeting 50000 such active members . The workshop was organized to finalize the active members . There is a criteria to get 50 members enrollment the Active member should be a member of the Party for last three years . Each mandal should not have less than 25 active members only then the Mandal will be eligible for Mandal Committees . The same criteria will apply to Hyderabad Municipal Corporation and Warangal Municipal Corporation. The Bharatiya Janata Party membership drive was launched in Hyderabad on July 6 by BJP national president and union home minister Amit Shah it was earlier till August 11. Initially, the drive was earlier supposed to end on August 7, but due to the demise of former Union Minister and also heavy rains the Party extended the timeline This time, there has been a good increase inactive members. Last time the party had 8000 active members, but this time it has already touched the 30,000 mark. The difference between active membership and regular membership is that active members have to get 50 people as general members into the party from the same polling booth. Party leaders say that response is highest from Adilabad and Karimnagar districts. They added that youth between the ages of 20 and 30 years have actively enrolled all over the state. Party leaders say they are happy that the response from Muslim women has been very good this time. “Many Muslim women have joined this time. I have personally witnessed this area like Khammam, Hyderabad, and Manchiryal,” senior party leader Dharma Rao said. Party leaders also say that that this time enrolment is coming from the poorer sections of society. Last time, more people from the middle class enrolled in the party Amit Shah is expected to take active membership from Telangana, where the party has set its sights on capturing power in the 2023 Assembly elections, a senior leader said here on Monday. “He (Shah) has promised and assured to take active membership from Telangana and Hyderabad, that too from my residential address,” BJP Telangana unit president K Laxman told PTI here. Taking active membership is a symbolism which Shah is showcasing as he considers Telangana as the priority state to come to power in the next elections, according to BJP spokesperson Krishna Saagar Rao. Laxman said Shah is expected to take the active membership on September 17 when he is proposed to visit the city to attend the celebration of ‘Telangana Liberation Day’ (which marks the merger of erstwhile Hyderabad state with the Indian Union in 1948), being organized by the state BJP. He said the party’s state unit has requested Shah, who is also the Union Home Minister, to attend the ‘Telangana Liberation Day’ on September 17. Laxman alleged the TRS government had betrayed the Telangana people by not organizing state celebration of the day, though Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao had questioned K Rosaiah, the then chief minister of undivided Andhra Pradesh, for not celebrating the day. The party’s Telangana unit is expected to receive a boost with Shah taking active membership from the state. Buoyed by its impressive gains in the Lok Sabha polls (winning four of the total 17 seats), BJP has been making determined efforts to emerge as the alternative to the ruling TRS

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