Taking a leaf out of the book of Aam Aadmi Party president Arvind Kejriwal, Sikkim Krantikari Morcha president P. S. Golay hosted a fund-raising dinner in a Gangtok hotel on Monday night for the cash-strapped party’s programmes in the lead up to the Assembly elections in the middle of next year.

A source in the SKM said the dinner was part of the party’s overall goal to usher in clean and transparent politics in the state. This is the first such event held by the SKM, which is the principal party opposed to the ruling Sikkim Democratic Party.

Golay, it is learnt, had formally invited between 80 to 100 people to the dinner, but double that number eventually turned up.

“There was no fixed cover charge for the dinner. The guests were asked to donate of their own free will. Not all the guests made the donation,” said the source.

The source, however, refused to reveal the amount of money collected at the dinner to protect the identity of the donors.

“The guests included people from all works of life, including government employees and contractors. We cannot for now reveal their names and the money collected in order to protect them from being targeted by the ruling dispensation,” said the source.

The Telegraph, however, could not independently establish the veracity of the SKM source’s claim. The dinner was a hush-hush affair and no media was invited.

In fact, the guests were also not allowed to take photographs on their mobile phones.

An intelligence source, however, confirmed that the event did take place in a hotel at Saath Mile.

The SKM source said the party was facing a fund crunch, which is why it had embarked on the exercise.

“We have a host of programmes lined up leading up to the Assembly elections next year. We need money - honest money - to organize those programmes. Unlike SDF, our party is not run under the influence of money-bags,” he said.

The major prorgammes of the party over the next couple of months include block-level tour of Golay beginning November 15 and a four-day youth convention to be held either in West Sikkim or South Sikkim in December.

The SKM had fared poorly in both the West and South districts in the 2014 Assembly elections, losing all the 16 seats to the SDF. In all, the party had won 10 out of the total 32 Assembly seats as against SDF’s 22. However, seven SKM legislators had later defected to the ruling party.