Did AAP receive over Rs 1 cr from former Eicher head last month?

The story originally appeared in Firstbiz Narendra Modi may well be Corporate India’s favorite political leader, but some corporate honchos are definitely cosying up to Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party too, which has promised an alternative economic agenda if it comes to power, focused on simplifying bureaucratic procedures and ending crony capitalism. [caption id=“attachment_1428009” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal. PTI[/caption] While several India Inc bigwigs have joined AAP – former Infosys director V Balakrishnan, former Royal Bank of Scotland CEO Meera Sanyal, former senior vice president and chief marketing officer of Axis Bank, Manisha Lath Gupta, among the corporate donors, a certain Vikram Lal from New Delhi has emerged as one of the party’s biggest fans. After crunching data from AAP’s official donation website, Firstbiz found that Lal has donated over Rs 1.29 crore to the party in the last two months. The speculation is that this is none other than the former MD and CEO of Eicher Motors. To be sure, the former boss of Eicher does appear in some previous media reports linking him to AAP. In 2012, for instance, Vikram Lal of Eicher donated Rs 3 lakh to Arvind Kejriwal’s India Against Corruption, which has been bankrolled by several corporate bigwigs, according to a Jagran Post story. Earlier this year, a petition seeking more funds for AAP on website change.org stated that “Vikram Lal MD of Eicher Motors donates on a regular basis and has donated more than Rs 57 lakh to the party”. [caption id=“attachment_1492015” align=“alignleft” width=“600”]  [/caption] Please note: Firstbiz used the ’transaction id’ available on AAPtrends.com, an unofficial site that tracks the party’s donations, on the actual AAP website’s transaction search and the data given on both sites matched. Even an Economic Times report today said that Natasha Lal, wife of the current Eicher chairman, Siddhartha Lal, donated Rs 50 lakh. As per AAP’s donation list, a certain Natasha (last name not given) from New Delhi donated Rs 50 lakh on 16 April, 2014, to the party. Firstbiz tried to contact Eicher and Common Cause, a Delhi-based NGO that Vikram Lal is associated with, to confirm whether the money was indeed donated by Lal. However, we have not received any responses to the queries. If we get more information on this issue, we will be more than happy to add/change/clarify the story. So far, the AAP has received nearly Rs 30 crore as donations, even though it had hoped to raise around Rs 100 crore.