Congress candidates in Kerala will have to raise their own funds to contest in local polls, as the party is facing serious shortage of funds. The Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee has introduced coupons to collect money from the public for the election expenses. Coupons from Rs 100 to Rs 2000 have been introduced by the KPCC to collect money. The party has asked ward committees to collect money from well wishers as well as from the public.
KPCC president Mullappally Ramachandran told The Times of India that the party is facing an acute fund shortage so there will not be any centralized funding for the candidates who contest in local polls. He also said that the pandemic was one of the reasons to raise funds, as there was a crisis everywhere.
Usually, All India Congress Committee funds KPCC only for Loksabha and Assembly elections. Even for bye-polls, the KPCC does not get funds from the AICC and raises on its own. In previous local polls, a small amount was given by KPCC as well as by the District Congress Committees to the local committees. Rest of the amount had to be raised by local committees. But this time the complete amount will have to be raised at the local level.
Each ward in a gram panchayath can raise up to Rs 50,000, municipality wards can raise Rs 1 lakh and corporation divisions can raise up to Rs 2 lakh.
"Everybody knows that congress has no money. But we will never trouble the public. When we ask for votes we also seek a small help. We have no other income. All our candidates are economically poor. They are sincere party workers," Thiruvananthapuram DCC president Sanal told the media.
Congress also alleged that the BJP and the CPI(M) has put in a lot of money in these elections as are in power at the centre and state respectively.