As BJP prepares for organisational polls, former MP from Keonjhar Anant Nayak will head the membership drive which will culminate with the election for a successor to State-unit president Basant Panda. Panda’s term expired in January this year.
Nayak, who unsuccessfully contested the recent Lok Sabha election has been appointed Odisha  Pravari by Shivraj Singh Chouhan, national convenor for BJP membership drive and former Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh.
The two-time MP will be assisted by RSS full-timer and former general secretary (organisation) of State BJP Sarada Prasad Satpathy.
The party will launch membership drive on July 6, birth anniversary of its founder Syama Prasad Mookerjee, and continue it till August 15.
 
 
The immediate task for Nayak and Satpathy is to appoint district in-charges for undertaking the job in a mission mode.
The district committees have been asked to send at least four names each, out of which two will be selected and entrusted the work to oversee membership enrolment. The saffron party has 36 organisational districts in the State.
“The target is to increase the number of members by 20 per cent, which is around 7.2 lakh, given that the party claims to have enrolled 36 lakh members in 2015,” said State BJP general secretary Dilip Mohanty.
The BJP is preparing to expand its base in areas where it had been weak so far. Currently, the party is taking a review of its performance at the booth level.
Like last time, Mohanty said the membership drive will be undertaken through missed calls too and the party workers would visit booth level members to verify their authenticity.
Extensive use of social media will made during the drive and focus would be to enrol more youth and respectable people from society.
Lok Sabha MP from Bargarh and national secretary Suresh Pujari is one of the four co-convenors to assist Chouhan at the national level.