Lucknow, May 5 (IANS): The state executive of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will meet in Ghaziabad on May 11-12 to take stock of its membership drive and assess other issues in Uttar Pradesh, a party leader said on Tuesday.

The convention would be inaugurated by party-in-charge for the state Om Mathur and would be attended by national president Amit Shah on the concluding day.

State spokesman of the BJP Vijay Bahadur Pathak told IANS that the meeting will be chaired by state president Laxmikant Bajpayi and Union Surface Transport minister Nitin Gadkari would be a special invitee at the meet.

Sources say that other than reviewing the membership drive, leaders would also take note of a series of electoral reverses that the party has faced in the state after the general elections success in May last year.

The party has lost a string of bypolls, including the Pharenda assembly seat recently. It was a seat it held till now but its party candidate slipped to third position, a notch lower than even the Congress.

Candidates in cantonment board polls, supported by the BJP, also lost in Lucknow and Varanasi. The last state executive was held at Mirzapur.