Over 1.13 lakh people have donated to the Congress as part of the party's 'Donate for Desh' campaign, with the total collection from the online crowdfunding effort since it was launched on December 18 amounting to Rs 2.81 crore.
According to party sources, the campaign, which was launched on the morning of December 18, with the first donation being made by party president Mallikarjun Kharge, has, till 9 AM on December 20, seen donations being made by 1,13,713 people from across the country. A majority of the donation has been made in smaller denominations.
A total of 32 persons have made donations of Rs 1 lakh or more, which includes party leaders Kharge, former party chief Rahul Gandhi, AICC general secretary in-charge of communications Jairam Ramesh, former Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot and former Chhattisgarh deputy chief minister T.S. Singh Deo and AICC communications head Pawan Khera.
As many as 626 people donated Rs 13,800 each, party sources said. The website 'donateinc.in' on which donations are being accepted by the Congress has, in the last two days, received 11.2 million hits.
Maximum donations have come from Maharasthra (Rs 56.06 lakh), followed by Rajasthan (Rs 25.98 lakh), Delhi (Rs 20 lakh), Uttar Pradesh (Rs 19 lakh) and Karnataka (Rs 18 lakh). There are many anonymous donors as well.
Of the contributions, 81 per cent have been made through the UPI route, 7.95 per cent using credit card, 6.34 per cent using debit card, 4.78 per cent through netbanking and .02 per cent using RTGS (real time gross settlement) mode.
The donation website, meanwhile, has faced 20,400 cyber attacks, the sources said. Of these, 1,340 attacks were aimed at stealing data, and a majority of the attacks were made as an effort to slow down the website. All the attacks originated from outside India. The party had anticipated the attacks and a team was put in place to thwart the attacks.
The party plans to take forward the campaign by activating the state units to encourage more donations, launching a door-to-door campaign and circulating QR codes in public rallies to help collect funds from the participants. A QR code will be used at the party's rally on December 28 in Nagpur to collect donations from the public. There are also plans to give merchandise such as mugs and caps signed by Rahul Gandhi to people who donate a certain minimum amount.
According to the sources, the controversy over the domain name may have actually helped provide additional publicity to the Congress' campaign.
Senior party leaders, including CWC members and AICC and PCC members, will be contacted to donate funds through the campaign, the sources said.
The party wants to use the funding campaign as a means to reach out to potential voters too. As per the sources, the donations have provided the party with data such as district wise and assembly wise funding patterns, and this will be shared with the state units.
As per the sources, the Congress has been careful to ensure enough checks on the website so that only people who reside in India and are Indian citizens can donate.