The Aam Aadmi Party has claimed that its membership has touched the 50 lakh mark, with the figures showing that the party is receiving less support from the southern states.
According to the data released by AAP early this week, its membership in north and west India has seen a surge with new volunteers joining it, but the same trend was not observed in the southern states. Two lakh members have joined AAP in Tamil Nadu whereas in Karnataka, only 59,000 members, of which 49,000 registered online, have joined the party.
In Kerala, a mere 40,000 people became AAP members. In Karnataka, a chunk of its support has come from tech-city Bangalore, where it has high expectations, party sources said. They said the party has not been able to get much success in Andhra Pradesh because of the highly polarised situation in the Seemandhra and Telangana regions of the state.
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.
AAP had launched its membership drive -- 'Mein Bhi Aam Aadmi' -- with an aim of increasing its membership to 1 crore. The campaign ends on January 26. Senior party leader and member of the Political Affairs Committee (PAC) Gopal Rai, who is also heading the membership drive, had said on Wednesday, "Over 33,55,425 members joined by filling forms.
"10,80,000 members joined the party via SMS or giving a missed call on the number given by the party while remaining 6,45,000 members registered as AAP members through its website," he said.
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