GUWAHATI: The BJP in Assam will go on an in-house contribution fund-raising drive among its party workers from January 1 next for its 'Sahayog Nidhi' and mop up at least Rs 10 crore, which will be put in a bank fixed deposit so that the monthly interest earned can be used to run its offices that are being set up at the mandal level across the state.
The month of February would be used to raise more funds from well-wishers through account payee cheques. The contribution drive among party workers will be through sale of coupons of different values - minimum being Rs 50 and maximum being Rs 1,999 (as stipulated by Election Commission).
"The fund-raising drive in January will be an in-house affair and the one in February will be a targeted donation from well-wishers," chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said in his address to party workers here on Saturday.
Sarma cautioned party workers that they shall not go to traders demanding donations. "We do not want to demand contributions from businessmen and traders. We will not go to markets. It is a different thing if a party worker is also a businessman," Sarma said.
He added that the party has roughly about 42 lakh members in the state and even if a contribution of Rs 50 each is collected from even 50% of them, the total amount will be about Rs 10 crore.
"This has to be collected from within our BJP family and not a contribution from a few individuals. The interest we earn from the fixed deposit of the total contribution will be used to run our offices. The maintenance cost of state headquarters at Guwahati will be several lakhs. Similarly, there will be maintenance costs of district and mandal offices," Sarma said.
He appealed to all party MPs, ministers, MLAs, district presidents, mandal, booth presidents and office-bearers to push the contribution fund drive.
