TIRUCHY: Former BJP functionaries and local volunteers have begun setting up street-corner membership desks for ‘We The Leaders’, the movement launched by former Tamil Nadu BJP president K Annamalai, across Tiruchy district, to enrol members and expand its grassroots reach.
Membership camps have been organised in Srirangam, Tiruchy city and Manapparai over the past week, with volunteers encouraging residents to register through the movement’s online portal. Organisers said the outreach has largely focused on youth, women and first-time participants in public affairs.
At a camp held in Edamalaipatti Pudur on Saturday, near Rockfort temple area on Friday and Srirangam on Thursday evening, volunteers were seen assisting visitors with the online registration process as passers-by stopped to enquire about the movement.
“College students, homemakers and senior citizens were among those who interacted with us and registered themselves,” said S Sarathy Karthikeyan, a volunteer for the organisation at the helpdesk set up near Srirangam.
The campaign comes days after Annamalai launched the movement following his exit from the BJP. While it currently functions as a people’s movement, volunteers hoped that it could eventually evolve into a political party.
Many of those coordinating the membership drive in Tiruchy are former BJP office-bearers who have since joined the initiative as volunteers. “No office-bearers have been announced yet. Everyone working here is a volunteer,” said R Parameshwaran, a former functionary of the BJP’s Central Government Schemes Cell in Tiruchy.
Parameshwaran said he had helped organise three enrolment camps in the past week and claimed that over 100 people had joined the movement through his referral code alone. “We continue to agree with the BJP’s ideology. Just as Narendra Modi is a recognised face at the national level, we believe Annamalai can provide similar leadership in Tamil Nadu. His speeches drew me to the movement,” he said.
TV Senthil Kumar, a former CPI member, coordinating enrolment activities in the Karumandapam and Edamalaipatti Pudur areas, said, “People from different walks of life stop and ask about the movement. Some register immediately while others take details and return later.”
Volunteers claimed that several thousand people had registered through the online portal and outreach activities across the district in recent days, although the figures could not be independently verified.