Congress wants only cheques and ends up with little cash

Singh heads a committee set up by Sonia Gandhi for the party’s financial revival; it meets soon to take stock of the situation and consider new recommendations. ‘‘We certainly cannot afford to be rigid. We will be looking at several options,’’ he told The Indian Express.

Singh admitted that one of the biggest hurdles being faced by the party in its fund-collection drive was the priority being given to cleaning up the donations process.

The direction from Sonia had come days after then BJP president Bangaru Laxman was caught on camera accepting cash, and was aimed at preventing partymen from falling into the same trap.

It has, though, led to a piquant situation.

‘‘Businessmen are wary of coming forward with cheque payments. Their identity will then be disclosed, leaving them open targets of any other regime that comes to power. It’s a serious situation for us,’’ Manmohan said.

The inability to rope in the business community — by far the richest donors to political parties — is just one of the Congress’s concerns. While preparing a blueprint for the party’s financial revival, specific directions had gone out to all state leaders that all the 1,000-plus AICC members should manage two donors each, each of whom should be willing to come up with Rs 10,000. Though it seemed good at the time, the Singh committee has found that less than half the AICC members have delivered so far. While Congress treasurer Motilal Vora declined to give out the exact figures, Singh said the problem lay in ‘‘poor states’’ where partymen were finding it difficult to arrange money.

One of the proposals before the committee is to reduce the amount from Rs 10,000 to Rs 5,000.

Vora, however, insisted that all was not lost. To generate funds, the Congress is planning to increase the strength of its primary members. ‘‘As of now, our primary members pool stands at 3.5 crore. We have launched a drive in several states and expect members to grow to five crore.’’

Several senior Congressmen, including Vora, concede that the overall situation was ‘‘bad enough’’ for the party. It was bound to worsen because 10 states would be going to polls soon and the Congress had to be financially sound at the time of hustings.

According to a Congress leader, the party headquarters at 24, Akbar Road itself requires about Rs 2 crore annually for its upkeep and functioning. Even this amount was hard to come by. Vora neither confirmed nor denied the contention.