‘In the last five months, 3.5 lakh members added’

Whether it is the effect of Narendra Modi or the simple fact of a party reaping the benefits of coming to power, the BJP seems to be turning out to be quite an attraction in Tamil Nadu.

While the party holds that the State would be the “epicentre” of its activities in the South in the coming months, the number of people joining the BJP in the State has seen a marked increase ever since it won the Lok Sabha elections.

Party’s Organising Secretary S. Mohanrajulu told The Hindu that the State BJP had seen an increase in membership of 3.5 lakh since May 2014, when it stormed to power in New Delhi.

“Till May, we had about 7 lakh members across Tamil Nadu. In the last five months, we have added another 3.5 lakh. This is a significant rise for a party that was seen as a marginal player here,” he said.

The Tamil Nadu unit had adopted a comprehensive software for accounting membership registrations to avoid any duplication.

“Whenever a member is registered in any of the districts, the particulars would have to be uploaded to the computer running that software. This would be verified and the count would be updated. We have the name, address and phone number of every member in the State. Currently, the online count is 9.3 lakh with 1.2 registrations in the process of being updated,” he said.

The party would launch a membership drive from November when the existing members would also have to renew if they had completed a particular number of years.

State vice-president M. Chakravarthy said the target would be to get 50 members for every polling booth before 2016 Assembly elections.

“If we are able to achieve this number, we are sure we will be able to win a few seats,” he said, adding that the charisma of Mr. Modi had clearly played a part in the increase in membership.