When DMK President MK Stalin unveiled the online membership drive recently, he could have been with the hope to induct more young voters to the party ahead of the state assembly polls but days after the launch, the drive had seemingly emerged as the wrong model as it had permitted anyone above 18 years to register with the party through online by just enclosing basic details. 

The recent revelation from the party's online membership drive had left the state and the party members stunned as some of the membership cards generated through the drive, which were circulated on social media, had combinedly gone to the extent of shock, sarcasm, and even made a newborn not to believe what it sees as the membership cards had shown that US President Donald Trump and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami have become the official members of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK). 

What? Yes, they got the membership card and the card issued to Donald Trump had shown that he belongs to the Egmore assembly constituency in Chennai. Along with Trump, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami, ousted DMK leader MK Alagiri, Superstar Rajinikanth, and Actor Vijay are among the few who have been made as the DMK members through the online drive and the development has now revealed that the online drive has no parameter to check the details entered and authorize based on the information. 

Donald Trump's photo was placed on the card and while US President belongs to Egmore, the rest of the top faces have been entered with their respective constituencies like the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister belongs to Edappadi, Salem and MK Alagiri belongs to Madurai. What was the reason behind such unbelievable and sarcastic inductions? It was due to the lack of verification on the party's online membership drive. As per the drive, anyone above 18 years of age can apply for the party's membership online and the membership form only asks for basic details and after entering the OTP, the membership card would be generated. 

In what has become an easy process, anyone can enter any name and any constituency and as the result, one can generate the membership card for anyone based on the wish like how US President Donald Trump has become a DMK member. According to reports, the DMK party has recently launched the 'Ellorum Nammudan' (Everyone with us) digital campaign with the motive of bringing in young voters towards the party ahead of the state assembly polls. The campaign has been carried out across various websites and online publications. 

The drive has got birthed from the suggestion of DMK's election adviser Prashant Kishor as his I-PAC team found that the party has very few members below 30. Following the launch, DMK President Stalin claimed that the membership campaign was a huge success with over one lakh members joining in the first three days. 

The party went on to claim that the drive has inducted over four lakh members in just ten days. However, the leader went into shock after knowing that the drive has been played by unknown pranksters who would be responsible for inducting Trump and EPS as the party members. 

The easy process and the lack of proper verification have been dubbed as the main reasons behind such developments, which further raised questions about the authenticity of the new and legal members. Speaking to a news agency, DMK's spokesperson TKS Elangovan had acknowledged the discrepancy and prevalence of the fake membership cards. He said that the party is trying to solve the issue and stated that the local DMK functionaries would be asked to cross-check the authenticity of the applicants at the booth level. 

When the party launched the membership drive, it said that around one lakh people including both leaders and members would be involved in the drive to meet the target of enrolling 25 lakh members in 45 days. The party had further stated that anyone who has attained the age of 18 can become a member of the party through this online drive and they won't be charged with any membership fee. While the party asserted that the details of the enrolled members would be verified by the members of the local party units, the fake membership cards under the name of Donald Trump and the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister had revealed that it's not the case on the ground.