AAP has Modi, Rahul, Obama on its rolls

Virtual who's who

Do not be surprised if the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)’s huge success in the recent Delhi Assembly elections has attracted its rivals to join the organisation.

A look at the party’s membership list reveals that Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, Gujarat Chief Minister and BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi are members of the less-than-an-year-old organisation. Former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and even US President Barack Obama are on the party’s rolls.

With the new party claiming that its nationwide membership drive that began days after its phenomenal debut in the Delhi election was a roaring success and it had a target to make one crore members by Republic Day on Sunday, rival political parties started picking holes in the membership drive.

As the party has allowed people to enrol online, anybody can log on to its website and register their names to get a computer-generated acknowledgement.

Interestingly, as there is no proper system for verifying online membership, several pranksters have registered themselves as Modi and Rahul by giving their current residence address.

In fact, many people have registered as Rahul Gandhi and given Tughlaq Lane, Delhi, as residence address which belongs to the Congress vice president.

Some have registered Obama as an AAP member from east Delhi, but have listed his address as the White House, Washington DC.

With no checks in place, people can register twice, any number of times and list details without fear of being asked for verification.

Reacting to this, Gopal Rai of the AAP, who is heading the membership drive team, said online membership was only moral membership and it was open to all. Those who wanted to become active members of the party should enroll through proper procedure by filling forms and paying membership fee, he said.

He also suspected that some of the political rivals were indulging in these kind of activities, unable to digest the huge popularity of AAP. However, BJP and Congress claimed that the membership drive was a hoax and there is no authenticity in it.