The Bharatiya Janata Party’s nationwide membership drive, held every six years, is set to take mobile and online routes this time around. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be the first party leader to have his party membership renewed through a mobile text message on November 1 in New Delhi. Speaking to presspersons on the sidelines of a workshop for southern and eastern State representatives here on Wednesday, on preparations for the drive, BJP general secretary J.P. Nadda said BJP president Amit Shah will register Mr. Modi as the first member. In turn, Mr. Modi will make Mr. Shah the second member by a similar method. Riding the wave of the Lok Sabha victory, followed by the massive win in Maharashtra and Haryana elections, the BJP is planning to scale up the drive to “at least triple” its membership, said P. Muralidhar Rao, in charge of Karnataka affairs. He said the aim is to convert the “voter base into cadre base”, as the campaign was beginning immediately after the victories and “when BJP is the new centre of politics”. The focus would be on youth and Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe communities, said Mr. Rao.
