Chhattisgarh: Naxal Threat Hits BJP’s Membership Drive in South Bastar

Raipur: BJP’s membership drive in south Bastar in Chhattisgarh has been hit hard due to the threats by the Maoists to the saffron party leaders to stay away from the campaign.

The membership drive has particularly been affected in the two districts in Bijapur and Sukma in south Bastar following the Maoist threat, a BJP leader said here on Thursday.

The Maded area committee of Maoists in Bijapur district has issued a diktat asking the local BJP leaders to stop expanding the base of BJP in the area by launching a membership drive.

A notice issued on October eight in the name of one Buchhan, secretary of Maded area committee, said that BJP’s Bhopalpatnam mandal unit president Yamal Venkateswar and Bilal Khan were carrying out BJP’s membership drive in the local villages to strengthen the party in the area.

The Maoist leader asked the two BJP leaders to withdraw from the membership drive of the party and threatened serious consequences if they violated his dictate.

Police said the matter was being probed.

“Maoists have issued warnings to our leaders in some areas in south Bastar not to promote the membership drive, affecting the membership drive. We have now shifted from online to offline membership drive in these areas to neutralise the threat”, membership drive in-charge of the party in Chhattisgarh Anurag Singh Deo told this newspaper on Thursday.

Sources said that Maoists have currently been visiting villages in remote Bastar and checking the cell phones of the villagers to find out if any of them have joined the saffron party online.

But, in case of offline registration in which the joining form has to be submitted in the party office, the identity of the new BJP member cannot be known unless he or she reveals, a BJP leader said.

According to Mr Deo, the two districts of Bijapur and Sukma have not so far evoked enthusiastic response to the membership drive by the party.

In both the districts, a little more than 10,000 members each have joined the party during the ongoing membership drive whereas two other districts in south Bastar, Narayanpur and Dantewada, have recorded registration of more than 20,000 members each.

By Wednesday, around 36 lakh new members had joined BJP in Chhattisgarh against the revised target of 60 lakh.

The membership drive by BJP will continue till October 25.