Aam Aadmi Party's membership croosed more than one lakh members in Bihar.

    PATNA: Aam Aadmi Party's senior leader in Bihar, Ratnesh Chaudhury, said on Saturday that the party's membership in the state has crossed the one lakh mark. On Friday the party collected 16,000 forms and ordered for printing more application forms, he said.

The party has started scrutinizing of forms submitted online and collected at the 101 counters set up in Patna. Chaudhary said the application of a former police officer who was posted in Bokaro (Jharkhand) and in the state vigilance department was rejected because AAP got reports of corruption charges against him.  He said AAP has attracted people from rural areas with forms being submitted across the state. Chaudhury said the number of young professionals registering was high.

Some JD(U) leaders have also approached the party for membership, Chaudhury said and added that some of them joined on Saturday. Some of the leaders who played an important role in the student's movement of Jayprakash Narayan of 1974-77 led by Chhotan Singh who is a member of the steering committee of the student movement have joined AAP, Chaudhury said.

The BJP is also trying to take a leaf out of AAP's book. Former deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi started a janata darbar on Tuesday. The BJP has advised all leaders to make personal contacts with the electorate like AAP did in New Delhi before the assembly elections.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            source :TOI

AAP Fever is gripping every disttrict of BIHAR.

Ratnesh Choudhary, AAP leader from Bihar, wants his party to contest all 40 seats. "We would like to field candidates in all the 40 Lok Sabha seats of Bihar. But it is for the PAC to take a final call on this," said Choudhary.  

After emerging as a successful political force in Delhi, the Aam Aadmi Party wave has hit Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. The party has embarked on an unprecedented membership drive, attracting the young and the idealistic in Lucknow, Patna and other cities and small towns in the two bellwether North Indian states.

From just 5,000 —before the Delhi assembly election results— to the current figure of 33,000, the growth in AAP membership in Lucknow alone is a sign of the party's potential appeal in UP. In Bihar, at 15 camps around Patna and in 37 other districts, AAP volunteers have written out 60,000 membership receipts in the weeks after the election outcome were announced on 8 December. Such is the enthusiasm that the newly formed party has run out of membership forms; the headquarters in Delhi has been asked to supply another 20,000.

In UP, AAP leader Kumar Vishwas' decision to challenge Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi in Amethi had made national headlines. But beyond Amethi, AAP fever is gripping several key cities in India's most electorally significant state. Retired engineer Shailendra Dubey, academic Sudhir Panwar, Supreme Court lawyer Prashant Bhushan and many others figures are in discussions among APP volunteers as possible candidates for Lucknow, Allahabad and other high-profile constituencies.

AAP spokesperson Badri Narain is not revealing names, but said that several prominent figures have approached the party to contest the 2014 polls from UP. The party has already started putting booth-level agents in place. "We are appointing local coordinators who will keep in touch with about 50 families in their locality. During polls, they will be assigned polling booths to ensure our voters do not have problems and also to take up official duties during counting of votes," said Narain. Similarly, the party is also in the process of appointing ward coordinators and assembly segment coordinators in the run-up to the polls.

Earlier, only the young and the restless were keen on AAP. However, the dramatic outcome of the Delhi assembly elections transformed the atmosphere, explained Iftikar Hussain, district executive committee member for AAP's Lucknow unit. "People from all walks of life and economic strata are joining us. It is as if they were waiting for the Delhi results to see AAP's performance." said Hussain.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                source>:TOI