Broke netas try crowd funding to meet poll costs

April 09, 2019 10:47

Several candidates cutting across party lines have taken to online crowd funding to finance their election campaigns, ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

Cash-starved, these nominees are also advocating transparency in poll funding.

Prominent among them are CPI candidate Kanhaiya Kumar, who is fighting the election from Begusarai in Bihar, Nana Patole, the Congress candidate from Nagpur, Raghav Chaddah of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Delhi, and Mohammed Salim of the CPI(M) from Raiganj seat in West Bengal.

Online crowd funding, a popular exercise in Europe before elections, was first witnessed in India during the 2017 Manipur Assembly polls.

The then anti-AFSPA (Armed Forces Special Power Act) crusader, Irom Sharmila, had resorted to the exercise and collected Rs 4.5 lakh for her party - People's Resurgence and Justice Alliance.

Since then the practice of raising money from people via the Internet has been adopted by a number of politicians. This will, however, be the first time since Lok Sabha polls began in 1952 that candidates in large numbers have resorted to online crowd funding to meet the expenses of their poll campaigns and send out a message of accountability.

Kumar, a former president of Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union, has so far raised Rs 70 lakh from more than 5,500 people.

He is followed by Atishi Marlena of the AAP, who has garnered Rs 50 lakh for fighting the polls from the East Delhi parliamentary seat.

Pedapudi Vijay Kumar, who is contesting the election on a Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) ticket from Parchur constituency in Andhra Pradesh, figures third on the list with Rs 1,90,000.

CPI-M veteran Mohammed Salim is not far behind. He has raised Rs 1,40,000, according to the online crowdfunding platforms.

Image: Atishi Marlena of the AAP has got Rs 50 lakh for fighting the polls from the East Delhi parliamentary seat.

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