New Delhi, Sep 20 (IANS): Strengthening the party at the grassroots level ahead of next year's assembly polls, the BJP Punjab unit has constituted 21-member committees for 16,000 polling booths in the state. BJP state chief Ashwani Sharma told IANS that the committees have been formed at two third of the total polling booths in the state.

"Out of over 24,000 booths, we have constituted 21-member committee each at around 16,000 polling booths. Now the BJP has a committee in about two third polling booths of the state and soon it will have a presence in all the 24,000 plus polling stations," Sharma said.

Sharma also highlighted that work has been progressing well for the formation of the said committee at the remaining polling booths and it will be completed soon. "Due to the hard work of our workers, we are able to expand the party to over 16,000 polling booths in the state and soon BJP will form booth committees in the remaining polling booths in the coming month," he said.

Punjab has 24,689 polling booths.

The BJP central leadership has directed all its state units specially five poll bound states to form a booth committee at each polling booth consisting of women, youth, Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), Other Backward Caste (OBC) and other sections of the society. Many party leaders admitted that the BJP was facing many challenges as it is only considered a party of urban areas but things are changing with each passing day, Sharma said.

Sharma claims that the BJP has now spread across the state and formation of committees shows that people are with the BJP. "Whatever was said by our political rivals are proving wrong and the BJP has expanded across the state. It will be reflected in the next year's assembly poll result which will surprise everyone including our political opponents," Sharma added.