Kanhaiya Kumar crowdfunds his campaign collects Rs 4 mn
Kanhaiya Kumar, 32, is using all his oratorical and crowd-working skills to appeal for support in the form of donations. His campaign team has set a target of Rs. 70 lakh.
Patna, March 28, 2019: In a first of its kind experiment in Bihar, former Jawaharlal Nehru University students union president Kanhaiya Kumar, the Communist Party of India candidate from Begusarai in Bihar, has collected Rs 40 lakh (Rs 4 million) in crowdfunding in just 40 hours.
Kanhaiya launched the crowdfunding drive on Tuesday, March 26, to collect funds to contest the Lok Sabha election.
‘Like one-one drop of water fills earthen pots and one-one brick helps to construct a house, donation of Rs 1 to my campaign fund will help me fight to take the voices of marginalised and exploited people to Parliament.’
https://youtu.be/u2TX-ZdPTNY
Within 48 hours, hundreds of local residents, mostly young villagers in Begusarai and people across the country, have approached the team that’s campaigning for Kanhaiya Kumar, comprising volunteers from the All India Students’ Federation (AISF), the student wing of the Communist Party of India’s (CPI), offering to contribute and support his candidature.
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Kanhaiya Kumar has launched the crowdfunding campaign in partnership with OurDemocracy.in, a crowdfunding platform, and aims to raise Rs 70 lakh for his election campaign, which is the permissible limit of expenditure in parliamentary polls, as per the Election Commission.
In his three-minute video clip seeking support, the student leader, “If you believe in democracy, I am seeking your support”, adding that democracy is being attacked and it is a “battle between money power and people’s power.”
After the formal announcement of his candidature by the CPI, Kanhaiya Kumar said his direct fight would be with Bharatya Janata Party’s (BJP) likely candidate Giriraj Singh. “My fight is to defeat communal and fascist forces in the country. I am confident and sure that people of Begusarai will support and vote me” he said.
Giriraj Singh is a controversial leader, known for his vocal championship of Hinduvta politics.
Satnarayan Singh, CPI state secretary, said some actors and theatre persons associated with the progressive Indian People’s Theatre Assocation will visit Begusarai to campaign for Kanhaiya Kumar. ”Shabana Azmi and her husband Javed Akhtar will campaign for Kanhaiya”, he added.
The CPI had targeted Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), a key player in the opposition ‘Grand Alliance’, directly blaming it for not backing the student leader Kanhaiya.
Sources in RJD said that the party was reluctant to support Kanhaiya Kumar on the ground that in last Lok Sabha polls, the RJD candidate Tanveer Hasan got nearly 3.5 lakh votes in Begusarai. Though he was defeated by BJP’s Bhola Singh, Hasan managed to prove his popularity, and was keen on contesting this time.
Begusarai will go to polls on April 29 in the fourth of seven phases polls.
