BJP to raise Rs 500 million to run party apparatus

The Bharatiya Janata Party has evolved a fund raising system to run the party apparatus.

According to the plan announced to party leaders from south India at the steering committee meeting on Sunday, BJP president Lal Kishinchand Advani said the party hoped to raise about Rs 500 million annually through the ajeevan sahayogi (lifelong associate) scheme.

Under the scheme, BJP activists and sympathisers would contribute to the party for a lifetime. The party would enroll about 100,000 people as ajeevan sahayogis.

BJP General Secretary Venkaiah Naidu said about 50,000 people would be enrolled in the first year of the scheme. It was decided to enroll 4,000 ajeevan sahayogis in Karnataka, 3,000 in Andhra Pradesh and 1,000 each from Kerala and Tamil Nadu in the next year alone. The party's fund collection, book-keeping and auditing of funds would be totally transparent, he added.

Although Advani told the inaugural session of the steering committee that he could not predict the fall of the United Front government, Naidu said BJP leaders were subsequently told that the Deve Gowda regime was expected to fall anytime and the party should be prepared for a mid-term poll.

Naidu revealed that one of the BJP leadership's key objectives would be to expand the party's base in south and east India.

The party will form various organisations -- farm workers cell, dalit cell, weavers cell, beedi rollers cell, toddytappers cell, doctors cell, lawyers cell, co-operative cell, and rickshawpullers cell -- in the south and east to win support among the masses.

The BJP will also set up a national training institute to train cadres for effective functioning of the party. Party general secretary Govindacharya has been entrusted with setting up this institute.