In a significant development, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has claimed to finally manage serious inroads in Kashmir by registering at least 80,000 new members into the party fold during the ongoing membership drive that started on July 7.
BJP’s national vice president and in-charge Kashmir affairs,Avinash Rai Khanna, said that the party’s Kashmir unit is feeling contendedover the response shown by the people. “We are hopeful that the party will passthe fixed target of increasing 20 percent more members to the existing one,” hesaid. “In every district, BJP is getting overwhelming response with politiciansof other political parties joining us besides cross section of the society.”
According to BJP leaders, since the party launched themembership drive in Kashmir on July 7, 80,000 new members have been added tothe party fold, while as Srinagar has topped the figure where 8000 new members.”The figure is increasing and we hope when the membership drive ends on August6, we will have at least four lakh new members in Kashmir,” a BJP leader,overseeing the membership drive said.
He said that in the restive south Kashmir, response to themembership drive was encouraging. “People of all thoughts are joining BJP givenits clear agenda,” he said.BJP’s General Secretary (organization) AshokKoul said that each member has been directed to add 25 new members into theparty fold. “We are satisfied with the way, people are joining us. We arehopeful that at the booth level, constituency level and also at the districtlevel, our vote bank is increasing with each passing day,” he said.