Bengaluru, Jul 5 (IANS): After enrolling 110 million members in southern states recently, the BJP plans to further strengthen its position in the region through mass contact programmes and study camps for newly-enrolled members, the party said on Sunday.

"BJP national president Amit Shah has directed our lawmakers and office-bearers of state units of southern states to build a rapport with newly enrolled members and also to flag the achievements of the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre to the people," BJP's general secretary Muralidhara Rao told IANS.

He was briefing media persons after the BJP's day-long south zone meeting held at the sprawling Bangalore Palace grounds in the city centre.

Amit Shah presided over the meeting with district presidents and other office-bearers of eight states.

Even as the Karnataka unit of the BJP would try to retain control of Bengaluru civic body in the ensuing elections in August, the party units in other southern states have been told to launch door-to-door contact with new members and to create a mass base for the party.

During the drive from January to March, the party's southern state units had enrolled a whopping 110 million members to work for its growth and expansion in south India.

Study camps for active members would be held in all southern states to ascertain their areas of interest and preferences so as to make optimal use of the party's human resource at all levels, Rao said.

Barring Karnataka, where the party stormed to power in the 2008 assembly election only to lose to the Congress in the 2013 polls, its presence in Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu and Telengana ranges from minimal to modest.

"We are confident of making inroads in other southern states to win the people's trust, as we did in other states to capture power for good governance and socio-economic development," the BJP leader asserted.

About 1,000 delegates, including office-bearers of state units and lawmakers in legislatures and parliament participated in the meeting and interacted with Shah to chalk up a strategy.