Hyderabad: BJP chief Amit Shah said on Saturday 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.
Shah was hopeful about winning the next assembly elections in Telangana. He added that the saffron party will strengthen in AP and Kerala by next elections.
Talking about Karnataka, Shah said "BJP formed the government in Karnataka earlier. Still we are told that BJP is not there in the south. I just say this much, whether Telangana goes ahead, Andhra goes ahead or Kerala moves ahead... these three states have to become strongholds of BJP some day," he said. "This competition is before Telangana people. You have to decide whether Telangana will first become (a stronghold), Andhra or Kerala," he added.
After the polls though the BJP emerged big with 104 seats, Congress with 80 seats got tie up with the JD (S) with 37 seats to form coalition government. It made Kumara Swamy chief minister while magic figure to clinch power was 113 seats out of 225 seats in Karnataka Assembly.
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 and inducted them as BJP members. Shah gave first membership of the BJP to a Tribal woman Soni Bai Nayak, who has been a party activist, at Ranganayakula Thanda near Pahadi Sharif in her small house to mark Shyam Prasad Mukherjee birth anniversary.
The membership drive was kicked off by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Varanasi earlier in the day.
Former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh Nadendla Bhaskar Rao, senior TDP leader Peddi Reddy and several others joined the BJP in the presence of Amit Shah at a meeting at KLCC hall near Shamshabad near city. BJP leaders present were K Lakshman, G Kishan Reddy, Muralidhar Rao, Jithendra, DK Aruna, Bandaru Dattatrreya, Ramchandra Rao and others were present at the occasion.
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 expressed confidence that the party's vote share would go up to 50 per cent from 19 per cent in Telangana.
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 on 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.
(With inputs from PTI)
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