Aam Aadmi Party raises Rs 1 crore at Bengaluru event attended by Arvind Kejriwal

BENGALURU: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) managed to collect around Rs 1 crore in Bengaluru on Sunday by organising events in which former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal participated. "About 150 people attended the lunch from which we collected about Rs 75 lakh," AAP leader V Balakrishnan told ET. "The event went off very well," Balakrishnan, who is also a former director at Infosys Limited, said.

The party organised the lunch event - at Rs 20,000 per plate - in Woodlands hotel.

When asked about the response to the Rs Selfie with Mufflerman' campaign, he said about 1000 people registered to click a selfie with Kejriwal. "We chose 25 people from those registered, and we collected about Rs 5 lakh from this campaign," he said.

AAP chief, according to Balakrishnan, met some high networth individuals (HNIs) who have made commitments to make monetary donations to the party. "The response to all our events was extremely good. He came here mainly for the donation drive, and the purpose has been served," he said.

AAP members, who spoke to ET, said they would raise Rs 1 crore in funding from Bengaluru, against the Rs 50 lakh raised in March 2014. Bengaluru is crucial for AAP , as it stood second to New Delhi in funding the party, last time.

Keeping this in mind, Kejriwal had three events in Bengaluru -a lunch, a public function at St Aloysius ground in Cox Town, and the spate of selfies. AAP volunteers also did a fund raising drive on Avenue Road and KG Road. An AAP volunteer admitted, off-the-record, that they had hoped to raise about Rs 3 crore from Bengaluru this time, but had fallen short of expectations.

In Bengaluru, Kejriwal continued his attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and mocked BJP's "nervousness" over the polls. A recent poll in New Delhi indicated that a majority of the residents wanted Kejriwal as CM, but preferred BJP , when asked about which party should rule.

Kejriwal told the lunch attendees: "A survey conducted by (AAP leader and psephologist) Yogendra Yadav has predicted that we will get 45% of the vote share, against BJP's 41%." He also said the Congress was nowhere in the picture.