New Delhi, Jan 12: The Delhi BJP plans to approach the Election Commission to legally verify the sources of funds for AAP candidates or any other nominee claiming to raise money through crowd funding.

Delhi BJP President Virendra Sachdeva said AAP candidates may raise funds from force inimical to India and asked the poll panel to ensure that the information about the source of funds should be disclosed before the elections.

Earlier in the day, Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri also mocked the AAP gimmick of crowd funding its candidates’ campaign. “Why do they need crowd funding, has the liquor scam funding been exhausted in Goa election?” he asked.

He said the AAP’s claim on crowd funding is “laughable”. “First, they mislead overseas people of Indian origin. Then they receive money from forces inimical to India go and live in the homes of their sympathisers during Punjab election,” he said.

Sachdeva said the AAP, which has been contesting elections since 2013, is now participating in its ninth election and, suddenly, the narrative being pushed by AAP leaders about raising election funds through crowd funding has left the people of Delhi surprised.

“The public is wondering if this crowd funding is a way to disguise the money saved from the liquor scam and the Goa election scandal, or if it is a ploy to convert money extorted through pressure on industrialists and officials in Punjab into political donations,” he said.

The Delhi BJP President added that it is highly suspicious that first Manish Sisodia, then Durgesh Pathak, and now Chief Minister Atishi are claiming to raise election funds through crowd funding.

Sisodia is an accused in the liquor scam, and reports revealed that a significant portion of the funds from the liquor scam were utilised in the Goa elections, where first Durgesh Pathak and later Atishi served as the election in-charges for AAP, Sachdeva said.

--IANS

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