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Cash-strapped Congress struggles to stay afloat; Karnataka offers sole bright spot - Economic Times
NEW DELHI: Don't fly unless it's absolutely unavoidable. Take trains. Chartered flights must be a rarity. Fuel allowances will be cut down, as will be money for daily expenses. In general, try spending as little money as possible.
This isn't pre-budget austerity message from Modi Sarkar to GoI babus. This is a crisis call from the leadership of Congress, a party that's been getting beaten in poll battles by Narendra Modi.
The grand old party is, by its own exalted cash-flow standards, facing a cash crunch. And ET has learnt, after talking to several Congress heavyweights, that party treasurer Motilal Vora has told AICC general secretaries in a meeting earlier this week that all Congressmen will have to spend sparingly.
Leaders who spoke to ET for this report did not want to be identified. The Congress treasurer, despite repeated efforts by ET, was not available for comments. Congress' woes follow the ruthless logic of Indian politics — a party that suffers repeated poll losses and doesn't hold out near-future prospects loses big donors.
One senior Congress leader said the loss of Andhra Pradesh (now broken into Telangana and Seemandhra), Haryana and Maharashtra — three states known to be fertile sources of political funding — has hurt cash flow, especially coming on top of the big general election loss in 2014.
Karnataka is the only political cash-friendly state in the Congress kitty. But that isn't enough to keep up us functioning in the earlier style, a senior party leader said.
"It is not surprising given the corporate/industry funding, barring few honourable exceptions, tends to follow with the political winds and keep a safe distance from the politically incorrect side for some time," another Congress leader observed.
Congress seniors familiar with deliberations at this week's cash crisis meeting said the point about being frugal was made emphatically and AICC brass was asked to make immediate changes in spending limits and patterns.
AICC heavyweights were asked, at the meeting presided over by Vora, to downsize budget allocations for travel and logistics. And even central party financial support for state and local election spending will be less.
"We not only have to pull our socks up for tough political challenge, we also have to do it on a shoe-string budget," is how a senior party functionary summed up the treasurer's directions. Leaders who attended the austerity meeting said the party treasurer told AICC general secretaries that to start with, office bearers will have to cut down expenditure on travel to states for which they are in-charges.
This means the party leaders should henceforth fly only when it is unavoidable and try to travel by train in most cases. Chartered flights were to be severely restricted, AICC secretaries were told. AICC seniors were also asked to cut monthly allocation of the funds meant to meet daily travel expenses of office-bearers in Delhi.
A dozen AICC general secretaries and a handful of senior leaders have been given cars from the party pool with a monthly fuel quota of around Rs 12,000 each. Forty other AICC secretaries are not entitled to party-owned cars but they are given a monthly fuel allowance of around Rs 7,000. These fuel expenditures are to be lowered, Congress leaders were told.
Incidentally, soon after Congress lost the general elections, senior leader AK Antony had returned his party car. Congress' austerity drive also means state units and party candidates in election-bound states will get less financial support from the leadership. One senior leader said Congress' Delhi unit and assembly election ticket aspirants in the state have been told to "find ways" to meet poll campaign expenses.
Delhi is expected to go to polls in February, and BJP and Aam Aadmi Party are campaigning heavily. Congress' campaign presence in the national capital has been minimal so far. And all opinion polls, including the one in ET, indicate Congress is likely to come a poor third. But a veteran Congress leader insisted the party can weather these rough, cash-poor times.
"We had a cash crunch after Indira Gandhi lost in 1977...and we came back strongly," he said.That comeback happened thanks to Congress victories after the defeat. "We need some election wins," another leader said. Everyone would agree with that.
What happened to all that money stole during the a decade of UPA rule
