AAP reaches out to Indian diaspora for funds in run-up to 2019 Lok Sabha polls

Ananya Panda
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, December 6

Knowing well the “challenges both in terms of man-power and money” in taking on mighty political opponents, the Aam Aadmi Party is reaching out to the Indian diaspora for bolstering the flow of funds in run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha election.

In the past, 25 per cent of its funds came from its overseas supporters. So relying once again on the section, the six-year-old party led by Arvind Kejriwal is engaging with non-resident Indians and people of Indian origin settled abroad in US, Canada and several parts of Asia.

Speaking to The Tribune, party’s overseas convener and national executive member Prithvi Reddy said, “Presently the AAP has 15 active chapters around the world and we are developing more. Our aim is reach out to people of Indian-origin across the globe to come forward and participate in the journey of transforming politics.

“We have received tremendous support from them even in the past. The party gets 25 per cent of its donations from overseas Indians.”

“We are creating an outreach programme through which the party is looking at all kinds of support. Not just monetary but also in providing an alternative model to the rest of the country.

“For this we are trying to get people of Indian-origin on board,” adds the engineer-turned politician who is also heading the AAP’s Karnataka unit.

As a part of its global outreach exercise, the party recently launched its East Coast and West Coast committees in the US and asked its members to work on stepping up the party’s support-base in every city in the United States.

On its old planks of “honesty and good governance”, the AAP wants to tap support of the Indian diaspora to help elevate its role in the country’s Lok Sabha by increasing its seat tally from four it won in Punjab during the 2015 General Election.

Nurturing aspirations of becoming a national party with its expectations high from Delhi, Punjab and Haryana five years after its first brush with political power, the party is looking at growing and expanding to other parts of the country.

Delhi, Haryana and Punjab—where the party will contest on all seats— are going to be its strong bets, besides it is going to progressively decide for other states in the country.

Though the road ahead is likely to be tough for the Delhi’s ruling party it hopes of reliving the Delhi magic by taking before people across the country the Delhi model of governance pitching it against what it calls “issueless and divisive” politics.