New Delhi: The Congress is resorting to an innovative way to raise party funds at the mega foundation day rally being held at Nagpur in Maharashtra on Thursday. According to party insiders, the back of all the chairs arranged for the rally have been pasted with the bar code of the online drive “Donate for Desh” to allow the people to scan the code and donate as per their wish.
“The selected five donors at the rally will receive a certificate from former party chief Rahul Gandhi,” a senior AICC functionary said. The “Donate for Desh '' online fundraiser was launched recently by Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge to fill the grand old party’s coffers.
The scheme is the brainchild of recently appointed AICC treasurer Ajay Maken. A few days ago Kharge also deployed former Mumbai MP Milind Deora and former Punjab minister Vijay Inder Singla as joint treasurers to assist Maken in shoring up the party’s finances. As the party has completed 138 years, donations can be made in the denominations of Rs 138, Rs 1,380, Rs 13,800 and Rs 1,38,000. “The idea to seek funds directly from the public has been taken from a similar campaign started by Mahatma Gandhi’s historic Tilak Swaraj Fund in 1920-21. The response has been very encouraging,” AICC functionary BM Sandeep Kumar told ETV Bharat. The AICC functionary said that the fund-raising scheme would also be used to connect with the voters ahead of the national polls in 2024. “This scheme will allow us to visit the households and seek their donations. This way our workers will feel involved and the party will reach the masses,” said Kumar.
According to party insiders, around Rs 1.45 crore had been collected on day one of the funding scheme on December 18. Rahul Gandhi, who had donated Rs 1.38 lakhs had asked the frontal units like the Youth Congress, NSUI, Mahila Congress and the Professional Congress to popularise the drive. According to party insiders, the reason behind launching the online fund-raising scheme was that most of the official donations were going to the BJP courtesy of the Electoral Bonds. As the Congress had been out of power since 2014, its corporate funding, too, has been drying up, said the party insiders.
While the online donation site is registering regular visitor hits, there have been several hacking attempts as well, said party insiders. Later, as the scheme gathers momentum, the party hopes to make some extra money by merchandising caps, T-shirts and caps signed by Rahul and will give these items to the donors as a token of appreciation, the insiders said.
“We are asking people to donate to the country as we are fighting against the BJP to save democracy and public institutions. Our message does not get across to the people due to less media coverage. This drive is an attempt to spread our views. The purpose of Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra part 1 was to connect directly with people. The same will be done in yatra part 2,” said AICC functionary Qazi Nizamuddin.
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