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January 17, 1998

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Empty coffers threaten Sonia's campaign

George Iype in New Delhi

E-Mail this story to a friend Sonia Gandhi's poll campaign may have boosted the sagging morale of Congress workers across the country, but her hefty tour bills have added to the worries of a virtually bankrupt Congress party on the eve of the general election.

The coffers of the 112-year-old Congress party -- once the richest -- are now said to be empty.

On Friday, party president Sitaram Kesri convened an unusual meeting of top Congress leaders to chalk out a strategy to tackle the grave funds crunch that has hit the party.

Kesri, who served as Congress treasurer for nearly twenty years, had bad news to convey: the party could not bankroll the election campaign of its candidates.

He has now set up informal fund-raising committees to search for potential donors and businessmen in an effort to mop up the requisite funds to fight the election.

Thus a committee consisting of K Karunakaran, Oscar Fernandes and Kotla Vijayabhaskar Reddy will seek funds in the southern states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

Another committee comprising Arjun Singh, Ahmed Patel, Madhavrao Scindia, Jitendra Prasada and Ghulam Nabi Azad will try to collect money from the northern states, while Sharad Pawar has been asked to collect funds from Maharashtra.

The party's three prominent chief ministers -- J B Patnaik of Orissa, Digvijay Singh of Madhya Pradesh and Virbhadra Singh of Himachal Pradesh -- have also been requested to contribute generously to the Congress coffers.

Congress sources cite the party's declining political fortunes over the last 10 years as the main reason for the acute funds shortage.

"No one will contribute liberally to a party which does not have a charismatic leader at its helm," a Congress official told Rediff On The NeT.

After the Rajiv Gandhi assassination, he said the Congress treasury has always been in a state of deficit as donors refused the party money.

The Congress's monthly bank statements read like a debtor's notebook. The party is now paying an interest of 18 per cent on a Rs 120 million overdraft drawn from the Allahabad Bank, Canara Bank and Syndicate Bank.

Every month, the Congress spends nearly Rs 2.2 million on the operational expenses of its sprawling office at 24, Akbar Road in New Delhi. Added to this recurring expense are the huge campaign funds that the party has to mop up at short notice.

Sonia's whirlwind election tour across the country is expected to cost the party nearly Rs 120 million. It includes the cost of the chartered plane in which she travels.

Moreover, the party is duty-bound to dole out money to each candidate it is fielding. The Election Commission has allowed each candidate to spend a maximum of Rs 1.5 million on the campaign. "I will be happy if the party leadership gives me at least Rs 100,000," a sitting MP from Kerala said.

Congress treasurer Ahmed Patel, however, denies that the party is facing a serious financial crisis.

"The Congress treasury has enough funds to fight the election, and we do not need money to win an election," he told Rediff On The NeT.

While not many candidates expect to be given party funds, the Congress leadership hopes to collect a sizeable amount from the thousands of ticket seekers from various states. It also hopes that the party's informal fund raising committees will be able to raise at least Rs 1.5 billion from mega donors.

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