AAP leader Gopal Rai at the press conference in Delhi.
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) today claimed its membership has reached upto 50 lakh and was hopeful of achieving the target of enrolling over 1 crore members by January 26.
The party said maximum members joined in Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Haryana.
The party has launched a campaign "Mein Bhi Aam Aadmi" with an aim of making over 1 crore people as members of the party.
Speaking at a press conference, senior party leader and member of the Political Affairs Committee (PAC) Gopal Rai, who is also heading the membership drive, said, "over 33,55,425 members joined by filling forms".
10,80,000 members joined the party by SMS-ing 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.
The party claimed that in Uttar Pradesh, over 7.3 lakh members have joined the party followed by 3.6 lakh in Delhi, 3.4 lakh in Maharashtra and 3.25 lakh in Haryana.
However, the response has not been very much in southern states. In Tamil Nadu, 2 lakh members have joined but in Karnataka, where the party had pinned more hope, only 59,000 members have joined the party. In Kerela, a mere 40,000 people became AAP members.
Party spokesperson Dilip Pandey said it has received over 2600 forms from people across 200 Lok Sabha constituencies from aspirants willing to contest elections.
"The deadline to submit the forms by aspirants wanting to contest Lok Sabha seats was January 15. However, we are still receiving forms. We have received maximum forms from Delhi and Haryana. In Delhi alone, the ratio is 60 people to 1 seat," he said.