Kharge kicks off Congress' crowdfunding campaign ahead of Lok Sabha polls
The announcement comes as the party seems to be facing a cash crunch and its corporate donations have also seen a steady decline
With hardly a few months left for the Lok Sabha elections 2024, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Monday (December 18) officially launched the party’s online crowdfunding campaign – ‘Donate for Desh’.
Inspired by Mahatma Gandhi’s historic ‘Tilak Swaraj Fund’ in 1920-21, the campaign aims to empower the party in creating an India rich in equal resource distribution and opportunities, said AICC general secretary KC Venugopal earlier while announcing the initiative.
AICC treasurer Ajay Maken said that the ‘Donate for Desh’ initiative is an umbrella campaign under which a “series of campaigns” would be carried out. Under the first of these, the party is encouraging donations in multiples of 138, to commemorate the Congress’s 138th anniversary. “On completion of 138 years of Congress, we request the countrymen to deposit amounts like ₹138, ₹1,380, ₹13,800 in the Congress account to strengthen the Congress, so that the Congress can work for a better India,” said Maken.
Maken said two channels have been created for donations– a dedicated online portal (www.donateinc.in) and the official INC website (www.inc.in). He encouraged the Congress’ state-level office bearers, elected representatives, District Congress Committee, Pradesh Congress Committee and All India Congress Committee office bearers to make donations of at least ₹1,380 each.
The announcement comes as the party seems to be facing a cash crunch. In 2023, the party declared assets of Rs.805.68 crore, in comparison with the BJP’s Rs.6.046.81 crore. Its corporate donations have also seen a steady decline in the last several years.
