Hyderabad: The ruling TRS has set the highest membership target compared to all other parties.

Telangana chief electoral officer Bhanwar Lal says political parties are at liberty to enrol as many members as they like. “Election Commission is not concerned with membership of the party, but goes by electoral performance,” he added.

Besides major parties, a couple of lakh adults will also be affiliated to other political parties like the MIM, CPI, CPM and others.

Whether political parties can achieve the membership target or not, a big chunk of the Telangana population is out to be politicised soon. With turncoats on the rise from top to bottom, the real membership figures of parties could be questionable too.

Though elections are still far away, all political parties have launched their membership drive with the Opposition attacking the ruling TRS and the latter trying to strengthen its base.

In fact, the BJP is seriously trying to fill the political vacuum after the rout of the TD and the Congress in the 2014 elections.

The TRS which was more focussed on the movement than building the party has now set an ambitious membership target among all political parties with 37.70 lakh. The Congress initially set a target of 20 lakh but jacked it up to 35 lakh. So did the BJP.

“We have launched a membership drive in November and so far 4.5 lakh members have been enrolled. Initially we set a target of 20 lakh and we have now revised it to 35 lakh,” said Mohd Ali Shabbir, TPCC vice-president.

TD floor leader E. Dayakar Rao said the party set a target of 10 lakh and over nine lakh members. “The response is very good,” Mr Rao said.