The expanding family of BJP

At 11, Ashok Road, the digital ticker rapidly flashes numbers exceeding 16,24,78,401 crore and so on. These ever-growing figures signify the number of miss­ed calls received on the dedicated BJP toll free membership number.

On the same digital billboard there is another flashing number – of ‘members’ who have ‘registered’ with their address and other details and have received a ‘membership number’. The figure reads 9,62,78, 868 crore on Thursday afternoon. 

Interestingly, a week ago Prime Minister Narendra Modi publicly lauded his right-hand man, Amit Shah for adding ‘10 crore’ members to the saffron party kitty.

Bharatiya Janata Party national secretary, Shrikant Sharma tells Metrolife, “People who have given missed call are not considered as ‘members’. The pe­o­ple who have sent their details to us after the automa­tically-generated text message following the missed call, are followed up by our ‘district incharge’ or ‘polling booth incharge’.’’ 

On its official website, the BJP calls itself ‘The party with a difference’ and wants its new members to garner more members by physically approaching new houses and going from door-to door, to increase the numbers.

Sharma informs that BJP will be launching a new Jan Sampark Abhiyaan from May 1, where various district, poll and mandal incharges will be going to the members’ homes to bring in their families too. “We will go and confirm the membership for the rest of the family members,” he tells Metrolife.

The party seems to be working full time to fulfill its many goals, some of which are: ‘Be the Ch­a­nge you want to see’, ‘#JoinBJP using Mobile’ and ‘Contribute towar­ds bringing people’, as mentioned on the party’s official website.

Jamuna, a Govinpuri resident, irons clothes for people. She says she wants to be a member but she has no phone. “But what will be the benefits?” she asks the Metrolife reporter.

“Members have no benefits, but they will be called as supporters of the party and will be acquainted with the party’s idealogy, its history and objectives,” Sharma tells Metrolife.

According to him the ‘second phase’ of the membership campaign will incorporate ways to bring in more people without mobile phones.

Sunil Kumar Dwivedi from Om Nagar says, “I often rece­ive text messages of ‘meetings’ from BJP. But I haven’t enroll­ed myself. They came to my house, asked for my mobile number, (imitating the party worker, who just knocked on the door, asked for Dwivedi’s phone and dialled some number) and went.” Dwivedi says he does not want to align with the saffron. 

The drive to enlist members began around eight months ago, when one could call a 10-digit toll-free number and receive their membership number as proof of being a member of the party.

Meena Kumari, security guard at Acharya Narendra Dev College, says, “Party wor­k­ers came to the college, engaged the youth and took ma­ny numbers. I told them I also want to join, but they said they have only come for college students at the moment.”

Neha Singh from Daulat Ram College says, “If they come to my college I will not join because I recently read in the papers that the party (she supported BJP in the General Election) has not paid the garbage pickers their salary for the past three months.” She was referring to BJP-run municipal corporations.

Ramesh Chand owns a wat­ch-repair stall in Govindpur. He says he recently got a text on his phone to which he was about to reply. But “my son told me that if I reply I would become a member of BJP.”

“I am not well versed with texting, I did not even understand the message properly,” Chand adds.