NEW DELHI: The Congress units in poll-bound Meghalaya and Nagaland as well as state committees like West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh have one thing in common – resource crunch.
The cash-starved state Congress units have now sought party vice-president Rahul Gandhi’s help in bailing them out of the crisis.
Last week, a delegation from the Congress unit in Nagaland led by former state minister K Therie met AICC treasurer Motilal Vora and general secretary in charge of NE states C P Joshi. The team apprised them of the unit’s fund constraints.
Sometime back, state Congress leaders from Meghalaya also sought “generous support and advice” from the party high command. Elections are due in these two northeastern states by February 2018.
For its part, the Congress high command is also aware of the crisis and in many state units, the leaders are generally being told to “fend for themselves”.
This has already resulted in some desertion of Congress leaders in poll-bound Meghalaya and Gujarat, sources said.
Rahul and senior leader P Chidambaram are likely to visit Meghalaya and Nagaland to kick-start election campaigning in September, sources said.
Due to obvious reasons following electoral debacle even in state elections since 2014, the Congress party’s corporate funding has dried up “and in contrast, the rival BJP has emerged cash-rich”, a source said.
At the AICC headquarters, senior leaders say the ongoing fund crisis has made things difficult in many states.
“In Meghalaya, the Congress is in power since 2010 and hence can manage the show up to a level. But in Nagaland, the Congress is out of power from 2003 and hence the going has turned difficult. Even in the last elections in 2013, other state Congress units like Assam and Manipur came to the help of party men in Nagaland but now both these states have passed onto BJP,” a source said.
Even West Bengal Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury has complained to the party high command about financial constraints. Similar complaints have come from other state units like Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
The fund crunch in Congress started figuring from 2015 itself and in order to stem the rot, Congress treasurer Motilal Vora has reportedly already asked all Congress MPs in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha to donate part of their salary.
According to sources, Congress candidates in state elections in Maharashtra, Haryana, Uttarakhand and Jharkhand had earlier complained about the limitations.
As part of some corrective steps, the high command has now decided to streamline the organisational structure consisting of four-tier panels — the All India Congress Committee, the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC), the Sector/regional Congress Committee (SCC) and the Polling Booth Committees — to augment resources.
But many state leaders say things are easier said than done. The Congress party sources said Gandhi and Vora have asked some of the state units to emulate ‘the Kerala model’ where the Pradesh Committee goes directly to people and not to business houses to collect funds.But many say such formula may not work in some of the northeastern states where terrains are tough and when elections come along with hard cash, leaders would also require quite a few vehicles and fuel to run them.
“The concept of political donation for parties can boomerang in some states,” another leader said.
The hard reality for Congress leaders is that in the recent high-priced polity, especially unleashed by BJP’s ‘Gujarat model’, even organising major rallies either by Sonia or Rahul can cost an estimated Rs 2 crore.
“Well, this resource crunch could be one reason for fewer rallies by Sonia or Rahul for the ensuing assembly elections in the North East,” the source added.
