Though Punjabis had elected four candidates of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) for the Lok Sabha, helping the fledgling party to open its account in the national legislature and save face in the country, yet Punjabis are lagging far behind in the financial support to the party, which is battling for survival in Delhi assembly elections.
No doubt, the AAP is getting donations even from the non-resident Indians (NRIs) settled in 70 countries across the world, but the list of donors from Punjab is very small despite there being four MPs of the party in the state. With only 1.9% share in the donations, Punjab stands at the 9th position with a total donation of `80 lakh by the January 4 evening.
HARYANA MORE GENEROUS
However, donors from Arvind Kejriwal's home state of Haryana, where AAP could not win a single seat in the Lok Sabha, are very generous in donating funds to the party as Haryana stands at the fifth position with Rs 2.40 crore, about 5.6% of the total donation of Rs 58.15 crore received by the party from 1,52,265 donors.
Interestingly, the donation from Punjab is even less than Rs 98.23 lakh received from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state of Gujarat. Punjab's contribution to AAP is also far below than that from United Arab Emirates (UAE) from where the party got Rs 2.36 crore.
{{/usCountry}}Interestingly, the donation from Punjab is even less than Rs 98.23 lakh received from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state of Gujarat. Punjab's contribution to AAP is also far below than that from United Arab Emirates (UAE) from where the party got Rs 2.36 crore.
{{/usCountry}}Not only the number of donors is very small from the state, but the amount of donation per head is also very small as most of the donations are below Rs 500, some donors have even donated Rs 10 only.
However, the overall per day donation to the party has jumped to Rs 79.20lakh from Rs 31. 70lakh on January 28.
Most of the donors are from Delhi, Maharashtra and Haryana.
AVERAGE CONTRIBUTION
The average contribution from Punjab is also low as per donor contribution is only Rs 1,538 against Haryana's Rs 3,052.
Punjab also has only two donors in the list of special 100 donors of 2014.
Donation is being done voluntarily but the less donation from Punjab, where the party had bagged four Lok Sabha seats about 8 months ago, raises questions over the popularity of party leaders and its MPs in Punjab, where the civic body polls are round the corner and assembly elections are due in 2017.