Congress crowdfunding effort faces bot attacks, data theft attempts

Party sources said the Congress will soon sell merchandise, such as caps signed by Rahul Gandhi, mugs and t-shirts. The party said the initiative is inspired by Mahatma Gandhi's Tilak Swaraj Fund

The Congress’ crowdfunding effort, ‘Donate for Desh’, where the party has sought donations from its supporters and sympathisers on its website, has seen over 20,400 bot attacks and 1,340 data theft attempts within 48 hours of its launch on Monday. The party received Rs2.81 crore donations from 113,713 donors until Wednesday afternoon with 81 per cent of donors sending money using the Unified Payment Interface (UPI).

Party sources said the Congress will soon sell merchandise, such as caps signed by Rahul Gandhi, mugs and t-shirts. The party said the initiative is inspired by Mahatma Gandhi's historic Tilak Swaraj Fund, launched in 1920-21. "Most of the bot attacks have originated from outside India. We are trying to get to the bottom of it. Our firewalls are resilient and withstood the attacks," a senior party leader said.
 

The party will follow up on its online crowdfunding exercise to mark the party completing 138 years, with a door to door collection campaign from its foundation day on December 28, according to Congress leaders entrusted with the task who spoke on the condition of anonymity. It plans to reach out to its donors to involve them in party work, which it hopes would make its organisational network robust.
 

The party has urged donors to donate in multiples of Rs138 either on donate.inc.in, which until Wednesday afternoon witnessed 11.2 million hits, and the official Congress website. However, the minimum donation amount is Rs10. The party will collect donations, as far as possible, during its upcoming public meetings by using QR Codes. The stress is on ensuring transparency, and gathering contact details of its supporters.
 

The party leader said that until Wednesday afternoon, the Congress had received Rs56 lakh from Maharashtra, Rs26 lakh from Rajasthan, Rs20 lakh from Delhi, Rs19 lakh from Uttar Pradesh and Rs18 lakh from Karnataka. While these are the top five states where the party has received the most monetary donations, thousands have donated smaller amounts from the Hindi heartland states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
 

Sources said the party tied up with the Bank of Baroda for its crowdfunding exercise, accepting donations from Indian citizens and not accepting any money from abroad. Apart from 80.90 per cent donors using UPI, 7.95 per cent have used credit cards, 6.34 per cent debit cards and 4.78 per cent net banking. Thirty-two people, including Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi and senior party leaders, have donated more than Rs1 lakh each, while 626 have donated Rs13,800.