AAP gets ₹24L in donation after Kejri’s appeal
KEJRIWAL’S MESSAGE, ISSUED IN AN EMAIL, LED TO FRESH DONATIONS OF ₹14.72 LAKH WITHIN A DAY, WITH MORE THAN 1,830 PEOPLE RESPONDING
NEW DELHI: The Aam Aadmi Party received ₹24 lakh within hours of its national convener Arvind Kejriwal’s appeal for donation “to help keep the idea of a clean alternative politics alive”, raking in more in a day than it had in a fortnight since the start of October.
The donations were triggered by the Delhi chief minister’s e-mail to donors in which he quoted figures released recently by a political watchdog to hit out at his rivals over dodgy funding.
Kejriwal’s message, issued in an e-mail sent to donors on Dhanteras on Tuesday, led to fresh donations of ₹14.72 lakh within a day, with more than 1,830 people responding. The lowest contribution was ₹10, and the highest ₹1 lakh.
On Wednesday, the party received ₹10lakh from 1,020 donors till 6:15 pm, a party official said. Most donations have been generated from India, he said.
Between October 1 and 16, the party received ₹13.23 lakh from 835 donors. The party has a committed group of 400 donors who contribute on a monthly basis.
“Whenever we run out of money, we issue appeals. We are happy so many donors have responded,” said AAP spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj. The party had issued a similar appeal for donations before the Punjab and Goa elections earlier.
In the latest appeal, Kejriwal quoted recently issued statistics by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) to hit out at the BJP and the Congress. The appeal comes ahead of Assembly elections in Gujarat and Rajasthan and local polls in UP where the party is testing the waters.
“According to the ADR report, 80% of political funding of BJP and Congress is from unknown sources. It creates a government with vested interests, and its loyalty is always leaning towards their funding agencies instead of the welfare of aam aadmis like us. This is probably why majority of our citizens are struggling for basic human necessities after 70 years of independence,” it said.
“AAP as an organisation constantly struggles to address — and hence writing this email — how to meet our political and organisational expenses. Many of you may think that with four MPs, 86 MLAs, 52 councillors, AAP should have no crunch for money to run a party,” the CM’s mail said.
The appeal became a topic of discussion on social media with #Clean Politics This Diw ali trending on Twitter.
The message cited AAP government’s performance in Delhi, where it claimed to have revolutionised the Indian political space with its commitment to good governance.