Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind kejriwal. Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind kejriwal.

Inspired by the Ice Bucket Challenge and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Swacch Bharat Abhiyan, the AAP on Friday launched a fund-raising campaign — I Fund Honest Party — to boost donations ahead of Delhi Assembly polls.

Speaking to reporters at the Constitution Club, AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal said, “This is a challenge for each donor to get 10 other people to donate for the AAP. I have donated Rs 10,000 and I invite eleven other people to donate to the party.”

Those nominated by Kejriwal include industrialist Rajiv Bajaj, actress and AAP leader Gul Panag, Chicago-based doctor Munish Raizada, Hong Kong-based AAP supporter Amit Agarwal, Kaushambi-based dentist Vipin Mittal, trader Subhash Khandelwal, AAP member Aswathi Muralidharan, law student Mohammad Qasim, his siblings Manoj and Ranjana and his IIT batchmate Subroto Saha.

Kejriwal challenged rival party BJP to make their funding process public, while maintaining that his party was the only one to have done so.

“This can be seen as a political strategy. Whoever funds the party will want benefits. Just like Swacch Bharat (Abhiyan), this is a Swacch Rajneeti (clean politics) initiative. If corporates are funding other parties, giving them thousands of crores, they will want enough benefits. We don’t need such benefits. We are taking money from people. So we will work in the interest of the common public,” he said.

This donor-get-donor campaign is aimed at increasing the donation reach of the party. Stating that no monetary limit has been set for participating in this campaign, Kejriwal said, “A person can pay as low as Rs 10 and they will be nominated for the campaign. Donors’ names will be uploaded on the party’s website immediately.”

More than half of AAP candidates new faces

The AAP on Friday announced its final list of eight candidates, including Shazia Ilmi’s replacement. Among the 70 candidates, 37 are new faces. There are 21 former MLAs and 12 former candidates in the complete list, a senior AAP leader said.

From Timarpur, former MLA Harish Khanna has been replaced by his campaign manager Pankaj Pushkar.

With Ilmi resigning earlier this year, the party has fielded Pramila Tokas from R K Puram. Sarita Singh, a Delhi University student who heads the party’s students’ wing in Delhi, will contest from Rohtas Nagar.

Local leader Goverdhan Singh has been fielded from Mehrauli. It has also fielded local party volunteers Ajay Dutt from Ambedkar Nagar and Pawan Sharma from Adarsh Nagar.

Haji Yunus, who is with AAP’s minority wing, will contest from the Mustafabad seat. Suresh Bhardwaj will contest from Wazirpur.

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