AAP membership drive crosses 1 crore target: Gopal Rai

New Delhi, Jan 28: In an overwhelming response, the Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has crossed the target of forming 1 crore members.

On Tuesday, the AAP government in Delhi completed a month.

On Monday, the AAP senior leader and member of the Political Affairs Committee (PAC), Gopal Rai, while addressing the media said, "We have reached 98.46 lakhs membership on January 26. It was just 7 lakh before we started the '1 crore members before Republic Day campaign'. We have achieved our target. People registered themselves as members through mobile phones, SMS and missed calls."

"People from all sections of society, from almost every district of every state, have joined the party," he said.

Rai said that the whopping response showed that the public has lost hope in other parties and was now looking to AAP for change.

The AAP had launched a free membership drive with 'Main Bhi Aam Aadmi' campaign.

However, Rai also admitted that while announcing the membership drive, initially, the party was not confident of getting 1 crore members.

He also clarified that registrations with fake names such as Barack Obama, Rahul, Gandhi, Narendra Modi, etc, have been deleted.

"If somebody goes against the AAP principles, his/her membership will be automatically cancelled. Each member has a responsibility and nobody should indulge in anti-AAP activities or the activities against our principles," he said.

On Lok Sabha elections 2014 preparations, he said, "We thought that we would be able to come out with the 1st list of Lok Sabha candidates by January 20. We did expect that so many people will apply. We are yet to process more than 1000 forms."

The AAP had launched a free membership drive with 'Main Bhi Aam Aadmi' campaign - early this month, targeting enrolment of one crore members by Jan 26.

The party said the maximum number of members joined in Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Haryana.

In Uttar Pradesh, over 7.35 lakh members joined the party, followed by 3.6 lakh in Delhi, 3.43 lakh in Maharashtra and 3.25 lakh in Haryana.

It has over 2.8 lakh members in Gujarat, 1.36 lakh members in Uttarakhand and 1.21 lakh members in Bihar, the party claimed.

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