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On a scorching Delhi morning, at the sprawling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) headquarters on Ashoka Road, 32-year-old Santosh Kumar asks me to click a photograph of him standing next to a giant digital board outside one of the media rooms. I hold up his phone as he flashes a broad grin. The board displays a live tally of the total membership of the party. For the 10 minutes I stand gazing at the screen, the number increases by a couple of thousands.
Kumar is one of the over 90 million members who have helped BJP become the biggest political force in the world, surpassing the Communist Party of China's membership figure of 80.6 million. Kumar says that he is inspired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and wishes to see a Congress-mukt India. "His ideas give me hope. Only he can make this country better. And I'm here to support him," he says, a tinge of pride evident in his voice.
A few paces away, 27-year-old Dheeraj Sharma is in frantic conversation with a party volunteer. When I ask him what brings him here, he says that he too wants to become a member of the party. Dressed in all-white and carrying a few documents in a saffron party folder, he is here to seek details about how he can get a party membership.
In November 2014, the party had a registered membership of a little over 30 million. Five months after Modi and BJP President Amit Shah launched an audacious membership drive, that number has swelled more than three times. By the end of this month, the party hopes to have logged a membership of 100 million - a goal that it looks well on its way to achieve. That is a remarkable benchmark for a party that completed just 35 years of its existence a few days ago.
Becoming a member of the party is simple. All you have to do is dial a toll-free number for mobile membership, or fill out a simple form on the party website to acquire online membership. You have to be aged above 18 and not be a member of any other registered political party. No membership fee is charged. Once a person gives a missed call to the toll-free number, he or she receives a confirmation call, following which the applicant is required to fill in personal details.
The number debate
While some political experts feel that the numbers claimed by BJP are dubious, Arun Singh, the party's national secretary and joint-in-charge of the membership drive, insists that this is a result of the massive popularity the party has been enjoying since its emphatic win in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. Sitting in his perfectly air-conditioned office with a calendar embellished with an image of Swami Vivekanand gently fluttering in the background, he says, "These numbers are completely genuine. We have the data to back our claims. The reality is that a lot of people want to be associated with BJP."
Congress General Secretary Shakeel Ahmad, who last month described BJP as the biggest "missed call" party, dismisses these claims as erroneous and misleading. "You cannot gain so many members in such a short time. The same person can give a missed call from two different numbers. That leads to duplication," he says. Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi also describes the numbers as a joke. "If by pressing a button you get 10 million members in a single week, you can imagine the level of dedication to ideology, dedication to a party, the involvement, participation and closeness they will have."
Singh says that starting May, the party will carry out a verification drive during which any person who has applied for membership will be required to produce requisite documents to officially become a part of the ruling party. "Door-to-door checks will be carried out at village, block and district levels. If there is a case of duplication, then we will eliminate such names from the list," he says. "But of the 90 million names or so, I don' think discrepancies will be more than 0.1 per cent."
The membership drive is aimed at the states where BJP has a somewhat subdued presence: West Bengal, Assam, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Odisha. "Our objective is to strengthen our base in these states. Our presence in these states is significantly better than what it was a year ago," says Singh. However, the strongest response to the membership drive has come from Uttar Pradesh, where the saffron outfit has added more than 10 million new members.
But how many of these members will be given an active role in the party? BJP's National Vice-President Vinay Sahasrabuddhe says the purpose of the whole programme is to build a connection with the people on the ground and create a sense of belonging. "All the members will be invited for local meetings and party programmes. They can use this platform to share their ideas," he says. An active party member can be designated a primary member by helping recruit another 100 people. The party, says Singh, will try to make the best use of each member.
Following suit
The Congress, desperate to keep pace with BJP in the membership stakes, has launched a similar campaign. A person can now become a Congress member through its mobile app, website and Facebook page, and of course, through the offline route. But a visit to the party's headquarters at Akbar Road, which wears a deserted look, tells you that there are few takers for that party's membership. When I ask some workers for details about how I can become a member, my query elicits a lukewarm response. I'm told a visit to the party's central election committee office on South Avenue might help. But that doesn't yield any results either because few in the organisation seem to know how the process works. All I hear is that "our process is more transparent than BJP's". Kerala Congress leader Mullappally Ramachandran, who is overseeing the party's membership drive, remained unavailable for comment.
Giving stiff competition to BJP in attracting members is the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). Fresh from its landslide win in the Delhi assembly elections, AAP has seen a steady rise in membership. Bipul Dey, national council member and head of operations at the party's Delhi headquarters, explains why AAP can match BJP in convincing people to join their party. Dressed in a blue-striped kurta, jeans and rubber slippers in the modest setting of AAP's Patel Nagar office, Dey says that he has received over 1,000 e-mails in the last one week from people seeking the party's membership. The party gets 600 to 800 phone queries daily. At the office, a group of party workers stare at computer screens, keeping a constant tab on the number of people wanting to become members. They also look at the skill-sets of the applicants to determine the role best suited for them. Dey, on his shimmery black mobile phone, shows me an Android app that can give you instant membership to the party.
Unlike the two national parties, AAP has separate registrations for volunteers and members. In order to become a member, a person has to fill out a form and provide personal details and pay a membership fee of Rs 10. But no formalities are needed to become a volunteer, points out Dey. "You can walk into our office and say that you want to work for the party. You can immediately become a volunteer," he says.
The 43-year-old is quick to point out that all AAP members or volunteers play a far more prominent role in the party's activities compared to those enrolled in BJP and Congress. "On paper, you can have as many members as you want. But the crucial thing is that these people should contribute," he says. "At AAP, we make sure that every member is assigned a role. Since we are a smaller party, it is easier for us to do this. Quite frankly, I feel that maintaining numbers alone is absurd," says Dey.
