Shah says BJP yet to reach its peak

New Delhi: The BJP may have notched up its best ever tally in the recent Lok Sabha polls but it is yet to reach its peak, its president Amit Shah asserted on Thursday, asking key party leaders to expand the organisation in new regions and bring more people into its fold.

Chairing a meeting of the party's national office bearers and its key organisational representatives from states, Shah said the party will reach its zenith when it will be running governments in states like Kerala and West Bengal, among others.

He also gave final touches to the party's membership drive, which will be launched soon with an aim to increase its members by 20 per cent, BJP general secretary Bhupender Yadav told reporters.

Yadav said the schedule of the drive, whose in-charge will be former Madhya Pradesh chief minister and BJP vice president Shivraj Singh Chouhan, will be announced in a few days and that the party's organisational polls will follow the exercise.

Dushyant Gautam, Suresh Pujari, Arun Chaturvedi and Shobha Surendran will be co-incharges of the drive.

Shah, party sources said, will continue as its national president till the organisational elections are over.

The entire exercise may take several months to be concluded, which means that the party may fight assembly elections in three states - Haryana, Jharkhand and Maharashtra - later this year under Shah's stewardship.

Yadav said Shah credited the hard work of crores of party supporters at the booth level for the BJP getting more than 50 per cent vote share in 220 seats in the general elections and winning over 303 seats.