Cash-starved Congress has approached its members of the Parliament, ex-MPs and ex-members of the legislative assembly to shore up its finances after the party clocked it’s worst-ever performance in 2014 Lok Sabha polls winning only 44 seats.
The All India Congress Committee treasurer Motilal Vora has written letters to all 44 Lok Sabha MPs and 65 Rajya Sabha MPs asking them to donate a month’s salary, while the Delhi unit of the Congress on Tuesday had a meeting in which ex-MPs and ex-MLAs were asked to deposit Rs one lakh each for the party fund by the first week of October.
The AICC general secretary in-charge for Delhi P C Chacko and Delhi Pollution Control Committee Chief Ajay Maken will meet the ex-MPs and ex-MLAs individually on Thursday to discuss the issue, the sources said, adding that it is not an isolated example and all the states have been asked to pitch in to create a robust fund for the party.
The state leadership has also been asked to rope in the party ministers and ex-ministers to mop up resources while the AICC will be asking ex-Union ministers, who served in either or both United Progressive Alliance or UPA II governments to liberally help the party in the hour of need, the sources said.
The upper limit for seeking donation from the party leaders is not limited to Rs one lakh and in some cases it could go up to even Rs five lakh.
A party leader speaking on the condition of anonymity said that there is “nothing wrong” in the party falling back on its leaders and cadres to help the Congress stand on its feet financially when it is out of power after ruling the Centre for 10 years.
“Earlier also MPs, MLAs and members of the legislative council from the party used to donate their one month’s salary in the party fund. Now the numbers of our MPs in the Parliament as well as MLAs in the states have drastically come down. Hence, it is time that the ex-MPs, ex-MLAs, ex-MLCs, senior office bearers of the party, councillors and others, who are capable pitch in,” a former party MP said on the condition of anonymity.
The AICC had indicated about the fund scarcity to the party leaders over three months ago. A number of states have already deposited the money.
The party had also decided to ask Congress workers to contribute Rs 250 annually to the party.
Each worker will be asked to contribute the amount every year as the party plans to become self-sufficient, AICC Treasurer Motilal Vora had said in July. Twenty-five per cent of the contributions made will go the Pradesh Congress Committees and 75 per cent to the AICC.
The plan will be set in motion once the membership drive, which is underway, concludes. Party’s organisational polls are expected to be completed by the end of 2015.
At present, each party MP and MLA is required to pay one month’s salary to the organisation, while each AICC member has to contribute Rs 600 annually to the party coffer. A PCC member has to contribute Rs 300 to the state unit.
The new rule will make it mandatory for all state units to distribute 50 per cent of the contributions received to the district units.
Around 12 years back, Congress president Sonia Gandhi had constituted a committee on the party’s finances under Manmohan Singh when the party was in the opposition at the Centre.
The committee, which had found the prevailing provisions concerning contributions from the active members cumbersome and impractical, had made several suggestions.
It had recommended that every active member shall collect or contribute directly to the PCC a sum of Rs 100 per year.
The panel had also recommended that the pattern of distribution of the contributions be retained at 75 per cent for AICC, 12.5 per cent for PCC and the balance 12.5 per cent to the district Congress committees
As there were an estimated 11 lakh active members at that time, the party would raise about Rs 11 crore a year from them alone. “This amount is more than sufficient to run the entire Congress organisation comfortably in a non-election year,” the committee had concluded.
Acutely aware of the need to raise finances for the party from within in order to avoid becoming captive to money power, the Manmohan Singh Committee had come out with the recommendations to reinforce the mass-based, pro-poor character of the Congress.
