AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal on Friday launched 'I Fund Honest Party' challenge under which he nominated 11 people, including his brother and sister, to donate money for the party ahead of Delhi assembly polls.
Kejriwal kickstarted the campaign by himself donating Rs 10,000 to the party. The former Delhi chief minister nominated 11 people, which includes industrialist Rajiv Bajaj, actress and party leader Gul Panag, Vipin Mittal, Kejriwal's family friend and dentist, businessman Subhash Khandelwal, his close aide Aswathi Muralidharan, NRIs Amit Agarwal (Hong Kong) and Munish Raizada (USA), Mohammad Kasim, a law student, Kejriwal's IIT batchmate Subroto Saha, his brother and sister Manoj and Ranjana Kejriwal.
His mother Gita Devi has also expressed her willingness to accept the challenge. These 10 people will nominate 10 more people and urge them to donate for the party. "I am kickstarting this campaign by paying up Rs 10,000 and challenging 11 people to Fund for Honest politics.
"Like other parties, we dont take money from those who take donations from people owning power discoms. They take their donation, but then they have to dance to the industrialists' tunes. We are taking money from people. So we will work in the interest of the common public," Kejriwal told reporters.
"Anyone can pay as low as Rs 10, if he/she is nominated for the campaign. The names of the donors will be immediately uploaded on the party website," he added.
Incidentally, the campaign is strikingly similar to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Swachch Bharat Abiyaan, under which he nominates eminient people for carrying the mission forward.
The chain is later carry forwarded through those who have been nominated.
After Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched Swachch Bharat Abhiyaan from Valmiki Colony, from where AAP had launched its party symbol "jhadu" (broom), Kajriwal too launched a similar cleanliness campaign near the Race Course Road -- the official residence of Modi.
Although AAP has been raising donations through its fund-raising events and campaigns, it is yet to reach the figure of Rs 30 crore, it has set to contest the elections.
AAP's national secretary Pankaj Gupta said through this campaign, the party wants more and more citizens to become "direct stakeholders" in our party. Challenging the BJP to make its funding public, Kejriwal said AAP is the only party, which has made its donations public and transparent.
"If politics is funded by clean money then the woes of the people can come to an end as any government coming to power will not work under the pressure of industrialists...it will work in the interest of people," Kejriwal said.
To raise money ahead of Delhi assembly eletion, the party has undertaken several fund-raising drive, which includes meals with Kejriwal. The party said that the AAP has over 1,00,000 donors since its inception.
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