 "BJP aims to become the largest party on planet by next year")
In a bid to expand its support base, the party launched a membership drive on November 1. It aims to triple its current 35 million membership to 105 million by the time the drive ends in March next year. By 2019 election, it aims to have more members than the number of votes it got in the Lok Sabha polls this year. If it is successful, it will also be the largest party in the world.
At present, the Chinese Communist Party is the largest with 85 million members. But unlike India's multiparty political map, China is a one-party communist state. This daunting task has been set for the BJP workers by its president, Amit Shah. It becomes even more challenging in perspective. In China, soldiers of the People's Liberation Army and bureaucrats are asked to become members of the party for life. If this were not enough, the BJP plans to reach a membership of 180 million by 2020. The BJP received about 170 million (17,16,57,549) votes - its highest ever - in the recent Lok Sabha elections. The Shiv Sena, its then ally in Maharashtra, got 10,262,982 votes.
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Together, the two parties got 181,920,531 or 180 million votes.
The BJP's target of 18 crore members is somewhat reflected in the phone number it has asked people to give a missed call on if they wish to become a member.
A BJP office bearer said the phone number that Prime Minister Narendra Modi dialed on November 1 to become the BJP's first member was the closest 11-digit number that reflected BJP's target to surpass 18 crore members by 2020. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India rules make mandatory the use of 11-digit numbers for telemarketing purposes.
The BJP has enrolled 56 lakh members in the nearly two weeks of the membership drive. The leadership has set targets for all states with focus on those where the party has been traditionally weaker, like Odisha, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
But membership numbers are highly unreliable in much of the world.
In India, as elsewhere in the world, membership numbers reflect what the political parties claim. There aren't any agencies which verify these numbers.
A couple of years back the Congress discovered that thousands upon thousands of its members were bogus. Last month, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi had warned party managers against swelling membership numbers by resorting to enrolling fictitious members.
A party leader had complained how the Congress had a list of 24,000 members in a polling booth with only 10,000 votes. Party leaders were unwilling to hazard a guess when asked about Congress's membership numbers.