The Congress party has been facing financial problems for the last few years. They have not sent funds to their local and state units to cover their respective daily expenditure, and these units now depend on crowd funding to make their ends meet. According to a report by Bloomberg Quint, the Congress party led by Rahul Gandhi is facing problems since the Modi government introduced a new way of electoral funding through Electoral Bonds. The bonds were introduced to cleanse the system of political funding in the country. The cash crunch in Congress just after the nation has moved towards a transparent system suggests that most of its funding was through grey channels.
The report by Bloomberg Quint quoted Divya Spandana, who leads the Congress Party’s IT cell, saying “We don’t have money in comparison to the BJP, the party is not getting much funding via electoral bonds.” This may be a ploy by the Congress party to gain sympathy because they are experts in playing the victim card, but if these reports are true then it could turn out to be a serious problem for the party. Now the party will try to generate more funds from ruling states, which is perhaps the reason behind the desperation by the Congress to retain Karnataka. Congress will try to squeeze Karnataka for more and more funds which will eventually end up with the Congress giving a free hand to corrupt businessman and mining mafias prevalent in the state. In their lust for more funds, Karnataka will lose its resources and the ordinary people of the state will suffer. If Congress eventually goes on to lose the state it will have only the state of Punjab to generate funds, which may end up making CM Amarinder Singh very powerful in the party. The CM of Punjab is known for running the state with high handedness and particularly for not listening to the diktats of the Gandhi family.
According to the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR), Congress earned one-fourth of the funds that BJP earned in the financial year ending March 2017. The BJP declared an income of 10.34 billion rupees ($152 million) during this period, an increase of 81 percent from a year ago. The party’s campaign paled in comparison to the BJP’s in Tripura, Nagaland and Meghalaya polls, an official said, noting it was one of the reasons it had failed to gain power in those states. The curbs on party members and local units extend beyond travel to trivial expenses like allowances for serving tea to guests at party offices.
The coffers of the party are running dry when they are not in power, which suggests that they were using illegitimate means to get funds when they were in power. The party is reduced to two and a half states (Punjab, Mizoram, and Puducherry) from the 15 states it ruled in 2013. The income of the party reduced drastically over the last few years because neither the corporate nor the people see any future in the party. Since Rahul Gandhi became the party President the prospects of the party seem to have further worsened since leaders like K Chandrashekhar Rao do not want to share the stage with Rahul Gandhi. The corporates are not funding Congress party for the last few years because they are confident that the party has no future in India. The anti-business activities by Congress party like opposing GST, land reforms, labor reforms etc have miffed the corporate houses.
The scams in its regime were Commonwealth Scam, 2G Spectrum scam, Coal Scam, Satyam Scam etc., the corruption was so blatant during UPA 2 that it is popularly known as “Scam Raj”. Congress must have got its fair share of the cake in these scams which it may be forced to use now. In the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, the prospects of Congress will remain bleak if they do not change their attitude towards the corporate sector and continue to oppose brilliant economic reforms of BJP government like GST, land reforms etc.
