BJP not an anti-Christian party : Kohli

Asserting it was not an anti-Christian party, BJP today said its political rivals were spreading lies to this effect.
"We are a development-oriented party. Our political opponents are trying to spread lies about us. We are not anti-Christian," BJP spokesperson and in-charge of Meghalaya Nalin S Kohli told reporters here.
"In fact, our deputy CM in Goa is a Christian," he reminded.
Kohli, along with other senior leaders, addressed a press conference after a 'Maha Sampark Abhiyan' in the city attended by BJP President Amit Shah and national leaders.
Tne meeting talked about the saffron party's aim to expand its bases in North East, including Meghalaya, Nagaland and Mizoram, in coming days.

Kohli said rise in membership in Christian majority states like Meghalaya, Nagaland and Mizoram indicated the party of not being anti-Christian.

The number of members in Meghalay has grown to over 60,000 from 23,000, while it went up to nearly one lakh in Nagaland from about 11,000 in a year's time, he added.
In Mizoram, the BJP leader said, the membership have touched 80,000 from 11,000 last year.
Talking about the close-door meeting of Shah, Kohli informed the BJP President has asked party workers to personally contact the new members, who joined the party through its missed-call drive last year.

BJP General Secretary Kailash Vijaywargiya said, "We have achieved over 11 crore members across the country following the missed-call drive.
Now the task is to build contact with these members physically, integrate them with BJP's ideology and impart them proper training for party works, he said.