New Delhi: Four Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidates have taken their nomination papers back in the past two days. The main reason is no support from the party to fight the Lok Sabha elections. Its candidates in Farrukhabad, Etah, Agra and Ajmer have opted out. They allege that the party has not sent them any money or other resources to fight the election. It has now become a new headache for the party, which is fighting too many other issues at the same time.
After its spectacular victory in the Delhi Assembly elections, the AAP had come out with an ambitious plan to raise Rs 300 crore from the people to fight 300 Lok Sabha seats across India. Later it was scaled down to at least Rs 100 crore.
But the response to fund collection has been very lackluster. It has so far been able to raise close to Rs 20 crore. On an average, it is getting Rs 5 to 10 lakh a day. According to the AAP website, it has received Rs 19,62,55,659 by 76,541 donors, from 107 countries, 37 states/UTs, 620 districts post Delhi Elections starting December 12, 2013. Its innovative fund raising techniques have also failed miserably.
If the AAP divides Rs 20 crore equally among all its candidates, each one will get just Rs 5 lakh. It won't cover even the cost of opening its election office in each constituency.
Most AAP candidates are truly aam aadmi in the real sense and have no financial backing. The series of controversies have also dented the image of the party and donors are not coming forward to help with money and other resources. According to insiders, the party may not be able to raise even Rs 10 crore in the remaining one month.
A candidate from Karnataka made a statement that he was not going to get more than 5,000 votes as he has no money to campaign. Many of its candidates just remain on paper and have not even ventured out to campaign.
Some others have the backing of some local NGOs and a few other followers. In most constituencies across India, the mainstream political party candidates are not even considering the AAP a real rival.
A Congress MP and a candidate said, "AAP is in the fray like many Independents. The AAP is also like one of them."
The AAP has so far fielded 407 candidates in the Lok Sabha elections. Except Delhi and its neighbouring areas, its candidates are not making any big noise or impact anywhere else.
According to a political analyst, the AAP is actually a serious contender in less than 15 Lok Sabha seats across India. In the remaining seats, it is not even in the race.
AAP leader Manish Sisodia claims that the AAP never promised money to any of its candidates and they will have to fight the elections on their own with the support of aam aadmi (common people).
However, it is also a fact that among all political parties, only the AAP is very transparent about its funding.
Comments
0 comment