Even though the Congress and the BJP have not announced their candidates for the Lok Sabha elections yet, the Aam Aadmi Party candidates are faced with a bigger challenge – it is one of resources or in other words money.
After its fund raising drive for the general election failed to pick up, the AAP has asked its candidates to spend their own money on the campaign, which is contrary to what the party did during the Delhi Assembly polls.
As such, most of the candidates are relying on their own savings and help from friends and relatives.
AAP candidate from Chandni Chowk Ashutosh admitted that this indeed is the case: “Yes, it is true. The party is not giving us any money because it does not have enough money to fund our campaign. Money is a big challenge for us.”
But he makes it a point to add that during the Delhi Assembly polls the AAP was the only party which spent the minimum on campaigning but still performed stupendously.
“Like Delhi Assembly polls, this time too lack of money has posed a challenge for us. But it is an opportunity for us to prove that we can make money irrelevant,” said the journalist-turned-politican.
During the Assembly polls, the AAP had managed to raise over Rs. 20 crore to meet the election expenditure but till date it has managed to mobilise only Rs. 12.98 crore for the Lok Sabha elections.
The money raised till now is way below the target of Rs. 300 crore which the party had set for itself after deciding to contest from 300 parliamentary constituencies across the country. It had adopted a back of the hand calculation of earmarking Rs. 1 crore per Lok Sabha seat.
