"Plan to cross the earlier 11 crore membership mark"

: The BJP plans to surpass its earlier registered membership of more than 11 crore members in the current nationwide exercise, union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said here Saturday.

The Minister for Law and Justice, Communications, Electronics and Information Technology, who kicked off the party's membership drive here, said the plan was to surpass the earlier registered membership figure.

"The membership drive in being launched in various parts of India.

Last time when it took place, the BJP's membership rose to 11 crore and we became the biggest political party of the world. We want to cross that mark as well", he told reporters here.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi formally kicked off the membership drive from Varanasi constituency on Saturday.

On his visit to Tamil Nadu and Chennai, Prasad said he had held discussions with regional members of the various department that comes under his Ministry.

"I had an official meeting will all my new departments members from Posts to Telecom and IT.", he said.

Prasad recalled his earlier visit to the state when the late AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa was Chief Minister.

"When I was in-charge of Tamil Nadu on behalf of my party, we developed a very cordial relationship and I always recall her (Jayalalithaa) affection and goodwill.

I always place my respects to Jayalalithaa, a distinguished leader", he said.

BJP Tamil Nadu unit President Tamilisai Soundararajan appealed to people to join the party.

"Join the world's largest political party and feel proud to join BJP under visionary leaders and dedicated cadres working towards#future India", she tweeted.