Ahmedabad, Sep 3 (IANS): Gujarat BJP on Tuesday urged the party workers to aim for 66 lakh female members for the party in the state.

“Women hold an important place in our party. In light of the 33 per cent reservation for women, our aim must be to enrol approximately 66 lakh female members in our party,” Gujarat BJP chief C.R. Patil said while inaugurating the Gujarat leg of the party's membership drive.

Patil handed over the first membership to Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel during an event at the Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay Auditorium in Ahmedabad.

The Chief Minister expressed “pride in being part of the BJP,” noting that the BJP is the only party where an ordinary worker can rise to become the Prime Minister for three consecutive terms.

On Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched BJP’s membership campaign in New Delhi, beginning a nationwide effort to bolster the party’s ranks.

Patil said that the party has set a target of two crore members from the state.

“In the previous membership drive, we had 1.19 crore members, and in the recent elections, we secured 1.88 crore votes. If the election had included Surat, we would have added eight lakh more votes, bringing our total to 1.96 crore for the Lok Sabha elections,” he said.

He added that to put this in perspective, the BJP received 1.87 crore votes in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, 1.73 crore votes in the 2022 assembly polls, and this time the party reached 1.96 crore votes.

“There’s some pessimism after the Lok Sabha poll results because we secured fewer seats. However, as Home Minister Amit Shah has pointed out, if we had won 241 seats in 2014, we would have celebrated with crackers. In Gujarat, I take responsibility for losing one seat, but now we must focus on moving forward,” he said.