GPP upbeat over response in rural areas

Keshubhai Patel and Gordhan Zadaphia led Gujarat Parivartan Party’s (GPP) membership drive across the state has accorded overwhelming support from the rural masses. “The response is good in certain areas, specifically in rural areas. The exercise of registering new members for the party is underway for the past three weeks. However, it has picked up momentum only since last week,” a senior leader from the party said.

“It will be difficult to give out the exact number of registrations as the process is still under way. However, we can say that the response is good in districts such as Junagadh, Surat, Amreli, Bhavnagar and Rajkot,” secretary (GPP) Siddharth Parmar said.
GPP was launched by Keshubhai Patel, Suresh Mehta and Kanshiram Rana. Gordhan Zadaphia led Mahagujrat Janta Party later announced its merger with GPP. 

However, GPP suffered a jolt as Rana passed away after a heart attack, on August 31. With assembly elections expected in December, it is a tough task for GPP to garner mass support.
Campaigning and mustering support from different strata of society remains an arduous task, which the party, though in its nascent stage, is assiduously tackling.

“We have a challenge on our hand to do many things at once. The top leadership is busy with public meetings and gatherings at various cities, towns and villages. A special team is working on our organising and election strategy. However, looking at the support we are getting from people, we are confident of living up to their expectations,” general secretary (GPP) Gordhan Zadaphia said.

GPP sources claimed the response is good from rural areas across the state. “There are places where we have not announced office bearers for the party, however, people themselves are calling us and demanding material and books for the membership drive. Response from rural areas is good. We hope to see an increase in membership once we launch our Parivartan Yatra,” Zadaphia added.

GPP had targeted a membership base of around 15 lakh in the executive meeting held in Ahmedabad. “Looking at the little time we have and too many things on our hand, we will be able to enroll between 3 - 6 lakh members by the end of October,” a senior leader from the organisation said.