Congress goes to public for cash: Rahul Gandhi's Rajasthan crowdfunding campaign is all about 'clean image' battle

Sep 15 (AZINS) In May this year, a media report revealed that the Congress, India’s Grand Old Party, was facing severe cash crunch.

Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, in fact, went on record and said that the Congress must not be embarrassed about the news and must ‘call on all concerned citizens to help us face the moneybags of the BJP.’

Now, this ‘call of help’ is set to become reality with launch of crowdfunding campaign in Rajasthan. Congress chief Rahul Gandhi is not just looking at filling the mepty coffers to fight the Assembly Elections but also win the battle of ‘clean image.’

The Congress has deployed a team of young professionals to organise crowdfunding in Rajasthan.

The plan is similar to what former United States President Barak Obama did during his two successful campaigns.

Obama had used crowdfunding as a tool to connect to ordinary citizens and changed the way US elections were fought. Nowadays, billions of dollars are being raised through crowdfunding around the globe. The World Bank predicts that global crowdfunding is expected to cross $93 billion by 2025.

Obama managed to raise $750 million in 2008 elections, out of which, $600 million came from 3 million people.  This comes down to $86 per person.

Even in 2011, he raised $614 million in individual donations out of which $214 million came from small donors.

The Congress also wants to use crowdfunding as it pitches for clean money in politics. It is for this reason that Sachin Pilot, the Pradesh Congress Committee Chief, released a video appeal and requested people to contribute to the Congress through contribute.inc.in. Pilot said that crowdfunding would create public stake and involvement in the election.

“The Rajasthan crowdfunding campaign is one among a series of campaigns the party is planning in the run up to the 2019 general elections. The party leadership is seeking to inject transparency into campaign finance by bringing up clean funds,” Divya Spandana, head of social media and digital communications for the Congress Party, said. “We understand that majority of Indians contribute through traditional methods but as our digital footprint grows across the country, more and more people are finding crowdfunding as a platform to directly connect with the Congress,” she added.

Earlier this year, the Congress had announced its pilot crowdfunding campaign during Karnataka elections where a first time candidate took on B Sreeramulu in the Assembly elections. The second crowdfunding campaign was to offer support to 30 year old Muktikant Biswal, a man from Odisha who walked 1400 km to Delhi urging the government to deliver on his promise made to the people of Rourkela.

The current crowdfunding campaign is being organised by Rahul Gandhi’s aide Kanishka Singh and Divya Spandana.