Amit Shah launches membership drive in Telangana, hails party\'s spirit

Hyderabad: BJP chief Amit Shah, on Saturday, said many parties get divided after facing electoral defeats as they run "on the basis of individuals, family and caste," but not the BJP, which has grown strong over the years as it runs on the basis of its ideology.

Launching the party's membership drive in Telangana, he said that in the electoral history of the country, many parties have broken and got divided with just one failure.

The country's oldest party, Congress party...there is no letter in ABCD on which there is Congress... Congress "O", Congress "U"... all ABCD.

"After a single defeat, Congress gets split and gets divided with one failure," he said.

He also referred to the Telegu Desam Party, saying it too was split.

Such parties cannot tolerate failure, because they run on the basis of individuals and family and caste," he said.

However, it was not so with the BJP, "which runs on the basis of ideology and is moving forward with a dream to make Bharat Mata (Mother India) 'vishwa guru', he said.

Prior to formally launching the membership driver, the BJP President visited the home of a tribal family near here and inducted them as BJP members.

The membership drive was kicked off by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Varanasi earlier in the day.

Shah said former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had mocked the BJP for having two members in Lok Sabha, saying they believed in "family planning".

Now the situation was such that the Congress had not even got the status of the main opposition party in Parliament while BJP came to power with a full majority, he said.

Shah set a target of enrolling 18 lakh new members in Telangana to the existing 18 lakh, instead of 12 lakh as planned by the state unit and said he would personally take up the drive by visiting every district if they were not able to do it.

"I asked (BJP national general secretary) P Muralidhar Rao.. he told me they plan to add 12 lakh members to the existing 18 lakh in Telangana.

If you (state leadership) cannot do it, then tell me. I will visit every district in Telangana and take up the membership drive. We need to strengthen BJP in Telangana and add another 18 lakh new members," Shah added.

He said the Prime Minister has directed party workers to take up a cleanliness campaign, plantation and also water conservation during the membership drive in villages.

Shah thanked the people of Telangana for giving 19 per cent vote share to BJP, which he said, showed that the party would form next government in the state.

The Union Home Minister also paid glowing tributes to (Jan Sangh founder) Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, whose birth anniversary is being celebrated Saturday, for his role in keeping Kashmir an integral part of India.

He also recalled Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel's role in getting erstwhile Hyderabad state, ruled by the Nizam, merged into the Indian union.