MLAs asked to go door-to-door and get at least Rs.1 lakh in donation from their respective constituencies: Sources

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal called a meeting of his MLAs on Sunday to discuss the financial crisis in the Aam Aadmi Party. According to sources, each MLA has been asked to go door-to-door and get at least Rs.1 lakh in donation from their respective constituencies every month.

The party, which depends on public funding, is staring at a financial crisis as donations have dipped since the party came to power in February. “The meeting was called to assess the financial situation of the party. Also, the MLAs will go back and explain to the people the concept of crowd-sourcing,” said a party source.

Of the 67 MLAs, around 60 attended the meeting at the Chief Minister’s Civil Lines residence. “The MLAs, during the mohalla sabhas, will make an appeal to the people apart from going door-to-door,” said the source.

After AAP’s Matia Mahala MLA Asim Khan was sacked from the Cabinet in September, Mr. Kejriwal has held three meetings with his MLAs at his residence.

While the party is coming up with ways to boost its donations, not much has changed. Donation figures dipped to as low as Rs.100 on May 17, while the highest was Rs.1.04 crore on February 4, three days before polling day.

The party has collected about 65.24 crore since December 12, 2013.

Financial troubles have been plaguing the party since June. On July 14, AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal had appealed to the public for money “as the party was broke”.

Though the Chief Minister’s appeal did yield the party money, the figures shrank soon after a week. “There is a perception that the party needs funds only to contest elections,” said an AAP leader.

“However, we need to run the organisation also. True, donations spike only when elections are around.” However, going by the trends of donations, the next one year will be tough as the next big elections for the party are slated in 2017.

With the party expanding its base and aggressively campaigning in Punjab for the 2017 Assembly polls, AAP leaders say a chunk of the donations are going to the Punjab unit. Recently when party leader Ashutosh went to Canada to mobilise NRI support, sources said he asked the audience to fund the party. Nationally, the party gets the maximum funding from Delhi, which accounts for almost 32 per cent of the donations.