Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah on Monday urged party workers to donate funds to the organisation in a bid to reduce the dependence on “money bags” given by builders and contractors.
Shah said the BJP should run on contributions from its workers, and should set an example for other parties, PTI reported. “BJP workers should say with pride that we run this party from our money and no industrialist, contractor, money bag or builder can run it,” Shah said.
It is not possible currently to run the party on workers’ contributions alone, he said.
The BJP marked the 51st death anniversary of ideologue Deen Dayal Upadhyay with a donation campaign. Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi said they have donated Rs 1,000 each to the party via the NaMo app. Shah urged two workers from each booth to contribute Rs 1,000 each to the party.
Shah called for a public discussion on reducing election expenses and finding ways to increase transparency in poll funding. “If means are not pure, then our goals cannot be attained in a good way,” Shah said at a party event in New Delhi. “If the party starts running from the money of money bags, builders, contractors, those with black money, then it will malign our means to realise our goals.”
In January, a report by the Association for Democratic Reforms found that the source of around 53% of the income of six national political parties in the last financial year is untraceable. The Bharatiya Janata Party alone accounted for as much as 80% of such income, the report found.
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