New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) enrollment drive witnessed a tremendous response, with more than 3.78 crore new members joining the party fold in less than two months.
The party's foray into West Bengal seemed to be the surprise factor as the state witnessed a 140% rise in enrollment i.e., around 40 lakh people, closely followed by Uttar Pradesh and Delhi registering 50 and 16 lakh members respectively.
Further outlining on the statistics, the party's vice president and co-convenor of the membership drive Dushyant Kumar Gautam remarked that they had fixed a target of adding 20% more members, which is nearly 2.2 crore, during the drive.
BJP National Vice President Dushyant Kumar Gautam speaking to ETV Bharat Terming the 2.5 month exercise as 'very successful', Gautam expressed confidence that the total number may get close to 5 crores when they collect the final data from the across the country.
"We have created an impressive record. The number has been not declared yet, due to the poor internet connection, in a few states like Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh. Paperwork is underway and soon the exact numbers will be revealed and the record will cross 16 crores," asserted Gautam, while speaking to ETV Bharat.
He further claimed that modification of Article 370 played an important role in this particular membership drive. "We will soon stake claim to be the largest member party in the Guinness Book of World Records," he added.
The membership drive began on July 6, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah, launching it from Varanasi and Telangana respectively, on the birth anniversary of their party ideologue Shyama Prasad Mookerjee.
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