BJP's strength to rise by 70 million, totalling 180 million: J P Nadda

This is the second round of BJP's membership drive, first one was held in 2015

The ruling BJP's membership is set to increase by seven crore, taking the total number of members to 18 crore, the working president of the party, JP Nadda, said here on Thursday.

Sharing the details of the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) "successful" membership drive, he said the process of collecting the data of the seven crore new members was still on and once it was completed, the party's total membership strength would be 18 crore.

Addressing a press conference at the party office here, Nadda said an overwhelming support for the BJP was visible during its membership drive as the target was to recruit 2.2 crore members.

The party got a fabulous response to its membership drive in TMC-ruled West Bengal and in Jammu and Kashmir, he added.

This was the second round of the saffron party's membership drive. The first round was held in 2015, during which its membership strength reached 11 crore.

The membership drive had started on July 6, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah launching it from Varanasi and Telangana respectively on party ideologue Syama Prasad Mookerjee's birth anniversary.

Though the membership drive had concluded on August 20, the campaign for inducting active members into the BJP would begin from September, Nadda said.

He also shared the schedule of the organisational polls at different levels across the country -- the booth-level election will start from October 10, followed by district and state-level polls.

The national-level organisational election of the BJP will be held in December, Nadda said.