The BJP in Uttarakhand managed to collect Rs 25.11 crore in a fundraising drive. The last date for the ‘Aajiwan Sahyog Nidhi’ was extended by two weeks with the BJP citing cold weather as the reason for shifting the dates. Most party leaders are terming the fundraising drive a big success, considering the financial position after demonetisation and GST.
The one-and-a-half month drive concluded with the Uttarakhand BJP providing a cheque to the party’s national general secretary (organisation) Ram Lal in Dehradun on Sunday, who in turn gave the entire fund collection to the Uttarakhand BJP unit for the party’s use.
The drive had attracted sharp criticism from the Congress which accused the BJP of misusing power and involving district magistrates and asking for donation from sand mafia. After the party completed its Rs 25 crore target, BJP was again on the firing line of the Congress. The Congress termed it demanding ransom from officers. Th Ex-Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat said, “BJP claims that they have collected Rs 25 crore in record time, if they are getting so much response from the public why doesn’t the BJP collect fund for development projects which remain stuck, due to non-payment to contractors.”
Many districts in Uttarakhand are small and collecting the funds was not easy for the BJP leaders. There was stiff competition among the BJP leaders to excel in the fundraising drive. Complimenting the party members for achieving the fundraising target, Ram Lal said, “I would request you to prepare a database of BJP party members involved in the campaign and the total number of donors.”
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Rawat highlighted the achievements of the BJP government. Earlier the last date for the fund rising was fixed at 26 January, but owing to bad weather it was extended to 11 February.The target for the Uttarakhand BJP was to collect Rs 25 crore and it is said that each MLA was assigned the responsibility of contributing Rs 40 lakh. Many political leaders faced difficulty as the condition was to bring cheque and PAN number of the donor.