Assembly elections in the national capital have only just been announced but the political battle had started to heat up on Saturday, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a rally in the city. In his speech, Modi advised Arvind Kejriwal, leader of the Aam Aadmi Party, to become a Naxalite because he calls himself an anarchist.Despite Modi's attacks on Kejriwal ‒ or perhaps because of them ‒ AAP claims that its donations have risen since the prime minister's rally.AAP has tried several strategies to raise funds since it came into existence in November 2012, and its efforts seem to be paying off The most recent attempt to obtain donations is the #IFundHonestParty challenge, which requires donors to nominate nine other people to make a donation to AAP. According to the party, donations zoomed after Modi’s rally. “On an average, 300 donors accept the #IfundHonestParty challenge in a single day,” AAP national secretary Pankaj Gupta said . "But on Saturday the number swelled to 600 in Bangalore alone."In just two days after Modi’s rally on January 10, the party attracted Rs 30 lakhs in donations. In total, the party has managed to obtain an amount of over Rs 2 crore in a little more than 11 days since the campaign was launched on January 2.

The party has launched a #SelfieWithMufflerMan campaign in Bangalore, more than 10 lunch or dinner events in Delhi and similar events in Mumbai and Lucknow.



Source: AAPtrends

AAP’s supporters in the United Kingdom have launched a fund-raising campaign with the hashtag #FlameOfHope and even organised volunteer meetings in London. However, the US remains the party's biggest international donor.

In India, the largest donations on average come from Andaman and Nicobar Islands, with an average donation size of Rs 20,000. But in total, Maharashtra donated the most funds to the party. Maharashtra has donated over Rs 11 crore so far while Delhi is a far second with a little more than Rs 7 crore in donations.

In terms of donation size, the party has received funds ranging from a single donation of Rs 3 crore, 47 donations of Rs 5 lakh and 17,000 donations of Rs 500.

The time of the receipt of donations makes for an interesting study. Most people donate to the party at midnight, according to the data by AAPtrends, a website which tracks donations and memberships for the party. The second-most popular time of donations is 6 pm.