In a bid to catapult itself onto the national political stage, the Arvind Kejriwal led-Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Friday launched a country-wide drive to enrol one crore members by January 26.
Announcing the ‘Main Bhi Aam Aadmi’ campaign at a press conference here, Delhi Chief Minister and AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal said people aspiring to join the AAP across the country could SMS on a toll-free number – 07798220033 – or give a missed call.
“The membership number will be sent via SMS,” he said. He clarified that one mobile number would record only one membership.
Admitting that not every person in the country had mobile phones, Kejriwal said such people would be approached door-to-door by AAP volunteers.
“Anyone can become a member of the party, but any person who will hold any post in the organisation or is chosen as a party candidate for elections will be screened,” he said.
Apart from this, people can also enrol into the party by filling a form on AAP’s website, said AAP leader Gopal Rai, who will be anchoring the nation-wide campaign that kicked off on Friday.
AAP, which is planning to contest the “maximum number of seats” in the April-May Lok Sabha polls, is also seeing this membership campaign as an opportunity to check the “ground reality” of the party’s prospects in the Lok Sabha polls, Rai told a news agency.
He said the “success of this campaign is one of our major strategies before the Lok Sabha polls.”
As of now, about three lakh people have joined the party online, barring slip membership, which is in the process of being uploaded, said AAP leader Pankaj Singh.
Also, the new phone number for the anti-corruption helpline of the Delhi Government is 1031.