While pushing for fresh elections in the national Capital, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is also planning to initiate and intensify its campaign for fund mobilisation as its coffers have almost dried up after its disastrous performance in the lok Sabha polls.
While there was a time, especially during the peak of the lok Sabha election campaign, when the party used to get several lakhs on a daily basis, its daily earning is just over few thousands these days. On Sunday till 8 pm, the party had received total of Rs12,408 from 26 donors. With the possibility of another Assembly Elections in Delhi looming large, the party is now pulling up its socks. “Now that there is a possibility of polls in Delhi, the party in the next few days will start its fundraising campaign in a big way. It should be out in a week or so,” said Kumar Gaurav, who is a member of the AAP’s fundraising team.
In fact the need for funds for the party was prominently visible at Jantar Mantar where the AAP recently had organised a rally to create public pressure for fresh polls in Delhi. There were over three big stalls for donations at the rally venue. Besides there were volunteers moving with donation boxes in the crowd of over nine thousand. Gaurav said the party managed to raise over Rs50,000 during the rally. “But the money does not matter much as it was an exercise to highlight the need for resources in the party, especially if it were to face another elections,” he added.
The party, however, does not consider decrease in the donation graph as a “setback” for the party. He said as far as the AAP is concerned funds are need-based as the party had asked supporters not to donate after the Delhi elections, once its need for Rs20 crore was met. “At the time when there was not much activity it was quite normal for the AAP to get just few thousands. In fact, if you remember after we managed to raise Rs20 crore for Delhi polls, the party asked people not to donate,” he said.
lately resources for the party have been crunching substantially and its graph of donation has come down in a big way, particularly since lS poll results were declared. On May 16, the party received Rs22 lakh, and since then it has been a downhill trend. On the day of the Jantar Mantar rally the party in total got Rs66,368 by 30 donors. It was just a contrast to the run-up to the lS elections whenever the AAP was in news, for good or bad reasons, funds used to pour in.