At a time when political parties are scrambling for space on radio, outdoor advertising boards, Delhi Metro and commercials sites, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is still striving to gather funds for its campaigning. In the latest mail, the party has asked all volunteers and members to donate money for issuing voice messages.
“The AAP needs to make 75 lakh calls in the next 10 days (through volunteers and through voice recorded messages) to explain its Delhi agenda to the voters. Each call costs Rs3 and therefore, this requires a budget of approximately Rs2 crore,” said the party in its email. In the 2013 Assembly elections, the AAP had a massive inflow of funds so much so that the party even stopped collecting donations after a point.
However, this year with the party not having much time, there is an acute shortage of funds. The party had a target of Rs30 crore this year but they only received around Rs10 crore, thus affecting their promotions. The party is now aggressively trying to get money for pre-recorded calls. The AAP has received Rs 6 lakh as the first donation for this campaign from Meenal Jain, a resident of Mumbai. With only a week to go, the party may, however, only manage to barely kickstart the campaign before time is up.