The Indian National Congress (INC) has recently launched an online crowdfunding campaign titled “Donate for Desh”. The campaign kicked off on 18th December and has been touted as the grand old party’s desperate attempt to collect funds for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. However, it appears that the Congress party has stumbled down a pit of incompetence, both in fundraising and in digital strategy. The campaign was announced on 16th December.
On the first day of the campaign, the party managed to collect a whopping Rs 1.45 crore rupees! For a party that once prided itself on being the front-runner of Indian politics, this minuscule sum only highlighted the downfall of its standing in the hearts of the masses. It appears that the party’s stature has been reduced to a forgotten relic from a bygone era. Not to forget, out of the money it has collected, Rs 1.38 lakh were donated by Party President Mallikarjun Kharge.
In a post, the treasurer of the Indian National Congress, Ajay Maken, happily announced the amount collected. He wrote, “9 AM today Morning. Total raised: ₹1.45 Crores! A heartfelt thanks to all the donors. Your contributions empower the underprivileged’s voices and strengthen our commitment to an inclusive India.”
https://t.co/kdXpsYxEyg
— Ajay Maken (@ajaymaken) December 19, 2023
9 AM today Morning
Total raised: ₹1.45 Crores! 🚀
A heartfelt thanks to all the donors.
Your contributions empower the underprivileged's voices and strengthen our commitment to an inclusive India. 🇮🇳
🌟 Top Donor States So Far: A Shout-Out! 🌟…
Maken further gave a shout-out to the top donor states. As per his post on X, donors from Maharashtra gave Rs 30.605 Lakh, Rajasthan donors gave Rs 12.98 Lakh, Uttar Pradesh donors gave Rs 10.898 Lakh, donors from Delhi gave Rs 10.589 Lakh, and donors from Karnataka gave Rs 10.513 Lakh.
X user PallaviCT questioned if the party would be able to offset the loss of over Rs 350 crore through this campaign. She was pointing towards the unaccounted cash recovered from the premises linked to Congress MP Dhiraj Prasad Sahu.
Just 1.45 crores?
— PallaviCT (@pallavict) December 19, 2023
Can it offset your loss of > 350 crores?
Yesterday, even your President Khargeji, who allegedly has assets worth 50,000 crores was crying 😭 about donating one month salary to his partypic.twitter.com/5ZNRtWrVXf
X user Manish Pandey said the way Congress is collecting funds, it will not collect even 38 cr from the campaign.
Bhai iss hisaab se mahine bhar me 38 Cr bhi nhi honge… 138 Cr toh bhool jao
— Manish Pandey (@ManishPandey) December 19, 2023
The celebrations on the party collection weren’t embarrassing for the Congress and there is a reason for that. Believe it or not, the party overlooked a crucial detail in the digital age. They failed to secure the online presence of the campaign!
For those who are unaware, the Congress Party, wait for it, forgot to register the top-level domains (TLDs) for its campaign! Consequently, donatefordesh.com and donatefordesh.org now redirect users to the support page of OpIndia and the donate page of BJP respectively. Bravo, Congress!
As if the paltry collection wasn’t embarrassing enough, the Congress party seems to have overlooked a crucial detail in the digital age – securing its online presence. In a bizarre twist of fate, the grand old party forgot to register the top-level domains (TLDs) for its campaign. Consequently, the .com and .org domains of “Donate for Desh” now redirect users to the OpIndia and BJP support pages, respectively.
Bravo, Congress, for inadvertently driving traffic straight into the arms of these organisations. One cannot help but question Congress’s commitment and intention to win any seats in the upcoming General Elections if this is their preparation. It is unclear that with the level of leadership and strategies, Congress will be able to maintain its position in the I.N.D.I. Alliance or not.
In the grand theatre of Indian Politics, the Congress party appears to be playing a tragicomic, role, one misstep at a time. One cannot help but wonder if the campaign should be changed to “Donate for Despair”. The nation is looking forward with a ray of hope for the next blunder from the Party that is all set to launch its famous “PM face” for the 2024 Elections once again.
