Hyderabad: The Telugu Desam has fixed a target of 70 lakh members in both the Telugu states during its membership drive that begins November 1. The party plans to cross the 50 lakh-member mark in AP by a wide margin and hopes to add about 20 per cent more members to its kitty from its 45 lakh members at present. In TS, the party has 10 lakh members and it plans to triple this figure, and enrol 10 lakh new members.
As per its constitution, the TD takes up membership drive once every two years. This year, the party will collect the Aadhaar and phone numbers and family details of every new member while enrolling them. The party has also decided not to increase the membership fee from the present Rs 100 per member. Every TD member will get insurance cover to the tune of Rs 2 lakh. AP Chief Minister and TD national president N. Chandrababu Naidu will start membership drive by taking the party membership on Tuesday at this residence in Vijayawada.
While enrolling the party membership the TD leaders will collect Rs 15 extra from those interested under Chandranna Beema scheme. As per this scheme, the TD members will get insurance cover of about Rs 5 lakh, aside from the Rs 2 lakh insurance from the party. Some TD leaders, particularly MLAs, have been paying the premium on behalf of the party cadre and the poor.
