Patna, June 5: The RJD today launched a drive to increase the party’s membership base across the state to one crore by December.

“The aim is to strengthen the RJD’s base from the panchayat- to the state-level. Every member will visit one village after another to get first-hand experiences. I will request all our party members to expose chief minister Nitish Kumar, who is running a dictatorship in the state,” RJD chief Lalu Prasad said.

“Today is a historic day as it was on June 5 that Jai Prakash Narayan had given the slogan of total revolution. The RJD is a follower of the JP Movement and has decided to launch a jail bharo andolan (court arrest movement) to throw the Nitish’s government out of power. The membership drive is one of the tactics that the RJD will use to mobilise the mass against Nitish,” he added.

RJD state unit president Ram Chandra Purbey said: “Earlier, we used to charge Rs 2 from a person willing to join the RJD as a member. From now, the membership charge has been increased to Rs 5. People from all sections of society are welcome to join our party.”

He added: “It’s time we became united to throw the Nitish government out of power, which has not only betrayed the common man but has also played with the emotion of innocent people by making false promises.”