GUWAHATI, Sept 12 - The ruling BJP is gearing up for organisational polls in the State, a process which, once completed, is expected to lead to major changes in the party hierarchy in Assam.
State BJP vice president Vijay Kumar Gupta told The Assam Tribune today that the election process is likely to formally begin from September 19.
�The process of organisational polls will first begin at the booth level. We are looking to complete formation of new committees at the booth level by the end of this month,� Gupta said.
The ruling party has over 26,000 booth committees across Assam.
�Once the elections at the booth level are completed, we will then hold the process at the mandal and district levels. The party structure at these two tiers will be reconstituted in October. After that, the organisational polls will be held at the State level. We hope to complete the entire process by November,� Gupta said.
The party�s new national committee will be constituted in December.
At the national level, a new party president is likely to take over from Amit Shah, who is also the Union Home Minister, by the end of the year.
Gupta said that the party will appoint returning officers at all levels for smooth conduct of the organisational elections.
�For example, there will be a district returning officer at the district level. Likewise, at the mandal level, there will be a mandal returning officer (MRO). The MRO will be assisted by an assistant RO,� said the BJP leader.
Besides the 26,000 plus booth committees, the ruling party had recently increased the number of its mandals to 391 from the earlier existing 302.
The measure was carried out as per the recommendation of the Mandal Reorganisation Committee formed by the State unit of BJP. The reorganisation was intended to facilitate further penetration of the party organisation in the grassroots level as well as to give each individual mandal committee more flexibility.
BJP also has 39 organisational districts in Assam.
Gupta said that the State BJP has completed its primary membership drive.
�The number of new members has crossed 20 lakh. Both online and the traditional offline methods were used during the drive to enrol new members. Officially, the drive to enrol new primary members has closed but the process of verification and digitisation is still going on. So we will be able to provide an exact number only after some time,� he said.
BJP had 29 lakh cadres in Assam before the latest membership drive, which had started in early July.
Gupta added that enrolment of �active members� is still going on.
�We had planned to complete that exercise by September 10. However, due to some reasons, we have now extended the timeline to September 16 for enrolment of active members,� he said.
The party plans to enrol 60,000 active members across Assam during the drive and Gupta said that the figure has crossed the 40,000 mark so far.
