A State-level meet of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will be held at Angamaly in Ernakulam district on Wednesday, ahead of a three-day conference of the party’s national office-bearers and executive at Bengaluru from April 2 to 4.
The meeting, which will be attended by State-level office-bearers and district presidents and secretaries, will review the party’s membership campaign that will culminate on March 31. The Central leadership has given the State unit a target to enrol 40 lakh members, but the campaign could enrol only around 20 lakh members, party sources said.
The poor response in the State and Tamil Nadu would be discussed at the national conference. The party has claimed to have done well in other southern States such as Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana.
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In Kerala, the response from Thiruvanthapuram, Pathanamthitta and Thrissur was good, party sources said. It had been far below expectations in the northern districts, especially in Kozhikode and Kasaragod. The campaign failed to reach out to minorities, especially the Christian community in Central Travancore districts. Factional feud in the State unit, ‘re-conversion’ programmes such as Ghar Vapsi and attacks on churches have been cited as reasons for the poor response. The recent induction of Alphons Kannanthanam as special invitee into the national executive had failed to achieve the desired effect, sources said.
The one-day meeting would also discuss the possible candidates for the upcoming bypoll in the Aruvikkara Assembly segment which has fallen vacant after the demise of Congress leader G. Karthikeyan.
A meet of the State leaders convened by national president Amit Shah last week had asked both factions, one led by State president V. Muraleedharan and the other by P.K. Krishnadas, to shed their differences and put up a strong fight in the bypoll.
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Meet will be held
at Angamaly on
Wednesday
Membership drive will conclude today