AAP aims at 1 crore members by Jan 26

New Delhi: The AAP launched a massive volunteer recruitment drive on Friday. Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal who is also the party convener, said that the party is aiming at induction of at least one crore people by January 26. He also said that the membership fee of Rs 10 has now been waived off completely. 

    Within three hours of announcing this, almost 50,000 people had joined AAP across India. "The option of joining the party online has been given this time and 47,500 people became members through online registration. Another 1,950 became members through the phone service," said party sources. Till January 7, the party had a membership of almost 2 lakh and a volunteer base of just over 7 lakh. More than half of these people joined the party after the declaration of assembly election results in Delhi on December 8 last year. "Till December 8, the party had 27,632 members and 2.47 lakh volunteers. In the one month after declaration of results, 1.65 lakh people joined as members and another 4.64 lakh as volunteers. We are quite confident of touching the one crore mark in the next few weeks," said sources. 
    The 'mein bhi aam aadmi' drive was launched on Wednesday by Kejriwal with the release of a phone number on which people can register. Senior party member Gopal Rai said that people could register by either calling on this number or messaging on it. Even missed calls on the number would be responded to but only one member will be accepted on one mobile number. "Other than the phone number, people can register online. The form is available on the party website and it can be downloaded and copied. Volunteers can distribute these forms by going door to door or organizing camps. Those who do not have mobile phones can join the party by giving their voter ID information but that will start after January 17," said Rai. 
    The party was almost entirely dependent on its volunteers and members for its campaign in Delhi. With limited funds and the need to involve as many people in its movement as possible, the party is aiming to induct several lakhs before the Lok Sabha elections. It did away with the membership fee while also admitting that it was not administratively equipped to deal with this influx of people.