Modi to launch BJP's membership drive in Varanasi, Shah in Hyderabad

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will be in Jaipur to launch the drive while BJP working president J P Nadda will accompany Modi in Varanasi.

The Prime Minister will launch a mobile number "8980808080". Anyone can become a BJP member by giving a missed call to the number. He will address party workers after launching the campaign.

Modi will also unveil a statue of former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri and launch a tree plantation drive.

The launch of the BJP's membership drive coincides with the birth anniversary of Bharatiya Jana Sangh founder Syama Prasad Mookerjee.

Shah will visit Shamshabad in Telangana, which is known as the gateway of South India. The state ruled by Telangana Rashtra Samitihi has a significant 12 per cent Muslim population. The BJP won four of the 17 Lok Sabha seats in the state and is eying to replace Congress as the main opposition party.

BJP's membership drive chairman and former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan will begin the drive in Gurugram, Union Ministers Piyush Goyal, Nitin Gadkari, Thaawar Chand Gehlot respectively in Goa, Nagpur and Raipur.

Dharmenra Pradhan will be in Odisha, Nirmala Sitharaman in Kerala, Ravi Shankar Prasad in Chennai, Bhupendra Yadav in Patna and Narednra Singh Tomar in Chandigarh to launch the campaign.

With a focus on West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Puducherry, Lakshadweep, Kashmir Valley, Odisha, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Sikkim, the BJP's membership drive will continue till August 11.

The party has set a target to increase the number of members by 20 per cent, which is 2.20 crore.

In a similar campaign, after the party came to power in 2014, the BJP enrolled 11 crore members through an aggressive drive. The party claims itself as world's largest political party.