CHENNAI: The BJP has decided to halt its ‘intensive enrolment drive’ in Tamil Nadu before touching even the halfway mark, choosing instead to focus on training the new members in the run-up to the assembly elections scheduled for next year. The decision comes a week ahead of the scheduled visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah to Tamil Nadu. As of July end, the party received 45 lakh requests for enrolment while the BJP had given the state unit a target of enrolling one crore members in Tamil Nadu through various means including the ‘missed call’ campaign. “One crore was a very good target and we worked really hard to achieve the number…We have only stopped the intensive drive to focus on moving to the next level. This does not mean the enrolment has stopped. We are sure there will be more enrolments as we go along,” said Tamilisai Soundararajan, president of the BJP’s state unit. She said the party received a massive response to its campaign and reaching a number of 45 lakh in a short span of three months is in itself a staggering achievement in a state which has been ruled mainly by the two major Dravidian parties – the DMK and the AIADMK. The party is now working on using the call database to locate each of the requests received. Its workers in 600 mandals will sort out the requests and make booth-wise identification of the enrolment requests. “We have identified 60,000 booths across the state and will be segregating the enrolment requests booth-wise. Party workers will personally contact each and every person with an enrolment kit and explain to them about the party, its works and achievements,” said Soundararajan. After completing the process of enrolment, the party plans to conduct a month-long training camp for the new members. The state unit will focus on converting those who want to join the party into full-fledged party workers and engage them in various activities, Soundararajan said.