Prime Minister Narendra Modi will on Saturday kick startBJP's membership drive from Varanasi on Saturday. Today is also birthanniversary of Bharatiya Jana Sangh founder Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee."Onthe Jayanti of our inspiration, Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee, BJP's membershipdrive will begin. I will be joining the programme in Kashi to mark thesame," Prime Minister tweeted.

"The drive will further connect people from all walksof life with the BJP family. It will strengthen our party," he said.Themembership drive will continue across the country till August 11, partyvice-president and former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhansaid in a statement.He said the party has set a target of adding minimum 20 percent more workers in its

strength. During his stay in Varanasi, parliamentaryconstituency of Prime Minister, Mr Modi will address party workers He willunveil a statue of former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri at the localairport and also launch a tree-plantation campaign."I look forward tobeing in Varanasi ...where I will take part in various programmes. The firstprogramme is the unveiling of the great Lal Bahadur Shastri Ji’s statue at theairport. This will be followed by the programme marking the launch of a tree-plantationdrive," Mr Modi wrote in the micro blogging site.

Mr Modi had visited his constituency on May 27 after thepoll results to thank people for reposing their faith in him and hisgovernment.

BJP working president J P Nadda will be in Varanasi amongother party leaders."Anyone can become member by giving a missed call on amobile number or by filing a form," Mr Chouhan said.Other BJP leaderswould also spread across to launch the membership drive.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will participate in the BJP'smembership drive programme in Jaipur, BJP chief and Home Minister Amit Shahwill do so in Telangana.Union Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari willundertake the campaign in Nagpur and Mr Chouhan himself will launch the drivein Gurugram in Haryana.

Around 75,000 BJP workers assigned to take up membershipdrive will move around the country and undertake a week long programme to reachout to people at their doorsteps and polling booths, Mr Chouhan said.