Donations to AAP dry up as Bhushan, Yadav vs Arvind Kejriwal controversy escalates

NEW DELHI: Talk about the Ides of March. There are enough parallels that the more theatrically minded might draw between Julius Caesar and events that gripped Aam Aadmi Party last month, although the 'Et tu, Brute?' scenario didn't get played out. The party, winner of an overwhelming 67 out of 70 Delhi assembly seats earlier in the year, cast out those that Shakespeare might have characterised as having a 'lean and hungry look' before that happened. So Caesar didn't fall, but something else certainly has.

After the crisis in AAP became public and the controversy escalated, the party's crowd-sourced donations seem to have plummeted, going by publicly available data on its website. March has seen daily average funding slide to the lows witnessed in the period following the general election, when it faced popular rejection thanks to the Narendra Modi surge. On Thursday, March 26, when the talks collapsed between the Prashant Bhushan-Yogendra Yadav duo and the Arvind Kejriwal camp, AAP registered its lowest single-day donation of the past year at Rs 264. This was down from Rs 733 on the day before, the second-lowest number. These low figures, while exceptional and limited in the overall monthly number, did contribute to the overall dip in the total tally for March to Rs 45.4 lakh, although the figure was still being updated as of press time on March 31.

The difference with the earlier numbers is stark. In March 2014, when the party was out of power and looking to fight a national election, it managed to raise Rs 9.2 crore. In January and February this year, riding the swell of popular support, it raised Rs 12.2 crore and Rs 5.3 crore, respectively.

Is it the mudslinging between the two sides that has dampened donor enthusiasm?

"While I haven't looked at the details, I read a report which said donations had dropped. It is certainly possible that the internal fights of the
party may have affected donations," said Ajit Jha, a negotiator with the Kejriwal camp along with Anand Kumar on the demands of Bhushan and Yadav.

Officially, the party isn't saying much. Sanjay Singh told ET that party donations and finances are not his responsibility. "Please ask party secretary Pankaj Gupta about it," he said. Despite several calls and messages, Gupta was not available for a response. Official spokesperson Ashutosh also didn't reply to queries.