Party largesse makes state BJP richer by ₹25 crore
Ajay Bhatt said that Rs 25 crore will be of big help to meet the expenses on daily basis.
DEHRADUN: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Uttarakhand unit on Sunday became ‘crorepati’ as the Rs 25 crore that it collected for the central party fund was returned to the state unit. Party general secretary (organisation), Ramlal, who was here to witness the ‘sahyog nidhi’ (contribution) drive, asked the state president Ajay Bhatt to keep the amount with them.
Bhatt said that Rs 25 crore will be of big help to meet the expenses on daily basis. The party presented a cheque of Rs 25 crore 11 lakh and 11 thousand to Ramlal. Usually, a certain percentage is shared with the state unit that collects funds for the central unit. BJP has state headquarters in Dehradun and district offices across the state. Around 50 odd employees work at Dehradun office.
“Ramlalji was generous enough to give the entire amount to us. We will keep the amount as fixed deposit in a bank and will spend the interest generated from the fixed amount to meet daily expenses,” said Bhatt.
The party’s drive to collect the contribution had indeed not gone well in a section of the party. A BJP legislator Deshraj Karnwal said, “Pehle vote lao phir note, aisa kaise chalega (first bring votes then notes, how it is going to work)”.
In a bid to push the contribution drive, the party president also held paid dinners and tea parties. In one such tea party in Roorkee, Rs 1.5 lakh was collected from each donor.
“We have kept record of every single penny that was collected. We have in record the PAN cards and name of the contributor,” said Bhatt, adding that everything went smooth.
Chief minister Trivendra Rawat, was also present while presenting the cheque to Ramlal. He also expressed happiness for crossing the Rs 25 crore target.
According to Bhatt, more than 20,000 cheques, with denomination of Rs 1,000, Rs 10,000, Rs1 lakh, Rs 21 lakh,
Rs 51 lakh, will be deposited in the party account this week.