The Bharatiya Janata Party has “still not peaked” in terms of its electoral performance despite winning 303 seats in the Lok Sabha elections, party President Amit Shah was quoted saying on Thursday.

Shah, who was appointed the Union home minister last month, chaired a meeting of the BJP’s national office-bearers, general secretaries and presidents of the party’s state units, on Thursday, PTI reported. Various matters, including organisational elections, membership drive were discussed in the meeting.

BJP General Secretary Bhupender Yadav addressed a press conference in New Delhi to share the details of Shah’s speech at the meeting. He said the home minister attributed the saffron party’s electoral success to party workers, and credited them for getting more than 50% vote share in 220 seats.

“Shah said the BJP still has not reached its peak,” Yadav told reporters. “Even today, where the party is yet to grow, the states where we have not won...the party’s reach needs to be further expanded to those regions.”

Shah said the party will reach its zenith when it will be running governments in states like Kerala and West Bengal, PTI reported. Shah also said that the BJP had strengthened itself in states like West Bengal, Odisha and Telangana over the last five years while continuing to dominate in states where it had performed well in the last General Elections.

Yadav said the BJP has 11 crore members at present and is aiming to increase it 20% and that former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who is also a party vice president, has been given the task of leading the party’s membership drive.

Shah reportedly told party leaders that the Modi government’s return to power mark the victory of BJP’s agenda of nationalism, good governance and welfare of the poor.

Yadav said Shah credited the hard work of crores of party supporters at the booth level who helped the party win more than 50% vote share in 220 seats in the recent elections. This mandate is against casteism, family rule and communalism, Yadav quoted Shah as saying. The party chief also noted that the decimation of the alliance between Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party in Uttar Pradesh ended the myth about the strength of caste-based parties.

Shah is likely to continue as party president till organisational elections get over. He may continue as party chief till December to oversee Assembly elections in Maharashtra, Haryana and Jharkhand, IANS quoted unidentified leaders as saying.

The BJP president will meet more general secretaries from various states on Friday.

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