Ranchi, April 1: Gyaneshwar Thakur (70), cousin of former Union minister Late Rameshwar Thakur, is a diehard Congress loyalist, but he is a BJP member now.

Gyaneshwar, like many, claims to have fallen victim to a "bogus" membership drive being conducted by the BJP country-wide through door-to-door contact, missed calls and an automatic calling system, which has drawn widespread criticism for not being a foolproof system.

He said that he had neither desired nor had given a missed call to the BJP's toll-free number - 18002662020 - to become a party member. Yet, he received an SMS that confirmed him as a primary member of the party.

"A week ago, I received an automatic call from a number starting with +91140. Recorded voice, on the other end, was of Bihar BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi, requesting me to join the BJP. This call was of no use for me and I soon disconnected it. Within a minute, I received an SMS from DM-MEMBER, welcoming me as primary member of the BJP. I am a Congressman by birth and has been converted as BJP member fraudulently," a disgusted Gyaneshwar told The Telegraph.

A resident of Thakurganti in Godda district and office-bearer of the trust, Gajendra Mishra Smarak Nidhi, Gyaneshwar is now planning to sue the BJP.

After being granted primary membership, people are asked to send SMSes with details like name and address to another number to complete the process.

"I frantically called on this number to lodge my protest, but found it to be switched off," Thakur said.

Ranchi-based research scholar Aprajita, who is doing her PHD in management at Jharkhand Rai University, also claimed to have received a call followed by an SMS on March 23, declaring her as a primary member of the BJP.

"After the call, I got an SMS that said that my membership number is 1081013755. Voting a party in the election is a different thing, but you can't make anyone a member without his or her consent," she said.

State Congress general secretary Alok Dubey, who is in-charge of his party's membership drive in Jharkhand - the Congress has set a much lesser target of 10 lakh members against the BJP's ambitious 50 lakh - said that he, his ailing father Suresh Prasad Dubey and wife Sonam have also been 'made' BJP's primary members through texts.

"My father's primary membership number in the BJP is 1080644971. He had neither given a missed call nor had applied for the membership. It is a case of fraud," Dubey said.

Although the BJP membership drive concluded on March 31, it has been formally extended till April 30 to achieve the 50 lakh target.

"It is beyond our control," said a senior BJP leader accepting complaints, when apprised of the gaffes.

"Such calls and SMSes are generated from the central BJP headquarters, which is monitoring the ongoing membership drive," he added.

State in-charge of BJP membership drive Anant Ojha said that so far in Jharkhand, 31 lakh members had been enrolled including through missed call and SMSes. Till now, the BJP units of Bihar and Jharkhand together boast 76 lakh members.

Asked about unwilling people being made party members through automatic SMSes, Ojha said: "I have not come across any such complaint. If these things are happening, it must be due to a system error. But I think such gaffes are barely one per cent. Even if anybody becomes a member of our party through an erroneous missed call or SMS, the membership is subject to verification. If found inaccurate, the name will be automatically deleted."

A pixelated screen mounted at the BJP's headquarters on Delhi's Ashoka Road put the nationwide membership figure at 90 million-plus at sunset yesterday.