Congress national spokesperson Gourav Vallabh, who is contesting Jamshedpur East, has taken the crowdfunding route to meet his campaign expenses.
He has taken this initiative with the help of New Delhi-based start-up, OurDemocracy.in, that enables crowdfunding for political causes.
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Vallabh has received close to 200 contributions amounting to 2.84 lakh already since his campaign went live on Tuesday. His aim is to raise Rs 28 lakh in eight more days.
“I have opted for crowdfunding to make sure my politics is clean and transparent and to let people have an equal stake in my political journey,” he said.
“For communicating this message to people, we need resources and I don’t have the deep pockets that one expects of politicians. My strength is my supporters,” he said.
He is a professor of finance at XLR and has been associated with various reputed organisations and institutes.
In 2017, he joined the Indian National Congress to serve the public. He then became a national spokesperson for his party, regularly appearing on television debates.
Jamshedpur East will vote in the second phase on December 7.
Candidates like chief minister Raghubar Das and Saryu Roy are also in the fray from that prestigious seat.
There are 13 crowdfunding campaigns from Jharkhand that are currently running on OurDemocracy.in.
Besides Vallabh, OurDemocracy was used by candidates such as Atishi, Kanhaiya, Jignesh, and parties such as Bahujan Samaj Party, CPI, CPI-M, AAP and Congress.
Vallabh is using social media to popularise his crowdfunding campaign. He is doing live sessions on Facebook to connect with his supporters.