Following the footsteps of his wife Rivaba Jadeja, ace Indian all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja joined the BJP on Thursday.
It was Rivaba, a member of the Gujarat legislative assembly, who announced the news of her husband joining the party ranks. In a post on X, Rivaba shared photos of the duo with their BJP membership cards. It mentioned the BJP's 'Sadasyata Abhiyan', or membership drive, which began on September 2.
The Chennai Super Kings (CSK) star retired from T20 internationals in June, shortly after India lifted the T20 World Cup under Rohit Sharma.
Rivaba Jadeja joined the BJP in 2019 before contesting the Gujarat Assembly polls from the Jamnagar North constituency in 2022. She was also part of Rajput-affiliated Karni Sena before joining the party, reports said.
BJP's mass membership drive
Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked BJP members on Monday to expand the party during its membership drive in a way that a maximum number of its women candidates are elected to Lok Sabha and assemblies when the 33 per cent reservation for women in legislatures come into force.
Speaking at the launch of the drive, he said the women's reservation law will be coming into force during the "kalkhand" (period) of the organisation that this membership campaign will build.
Modi was enrolled by BJP president J P Nadda as the first member of the drive in the presence of its senior leaders, including a host of Union ministers such as Rajnath Singh and Amit Shah.
He has often spoken about increasing women's support for the BJP and has asked the party to boost its outreach to them.
The prime minister asked party members to be innovative in enrolling new members and urged them to make border villages fortresses for the BJP and focus on the tribals as well as the generation in the 18-25 years age group.
He said the young generation is not aware of the media headlines focussing on a host of scams 10 years ago, when the Congress-led UPA was in power, and they have only seen the new India which is doing well in a host of sectors.
The young generation as BJP members would be the "biggest source of strength" for the party to fulfil the resolve of making India a developed country by 2047, Modi asserted.
The BJP launches the drive to renew the membership of its existing members and enrol new members every six years in line with its constitution.
Modi said the BJP is the only organisation which follows democratic principles in running its organisational affairs.