Fund-starved Congress opts for crowd funding to ‘help restore democracy’

Congress party President Rahul Gandhi and former party chief Sonia Gandhi. (Photo: AFP/File)


What could be termed as a mass outreach programme or genuine plea for help, the Congress Party on Thursday tweeted that they need “financial support” to help them “restore democracy” in India.

Days after senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor said that the party should not be embarrassed to acknowledge that it was facing fund crunch, the INC in a tweet said: “The Congress needs your support and help. Help us restore the democracy which India has proudly embraced since 70 years by making a small contribution”. The party also posted link to its crowd-funding programme.

Congress crowd-funding campaign tweet comes in the wake of Tharoor’s tweet in which he said: “I don’t think we need to be embarrassed about acknowledging that @incIndia is facing a funding crunch… We should call on all concerned citizens to help us face the moneybags of the BJP”.

Tharoor was referring to a Bloomberg Quint news report, which said that the grand old party is facing a cash crunch crisis. The news report said that for the past five months, Congress leadership has stopped sending the funds required to run its offices in various states.

The Congress cash crunch crisis comes after string of electoral victories by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) engineered by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah.

The Congress party which earlier ruled 13 of the 29 states is now down to two states, Punjab and Mizoram, apart from being a junior partner in the ruling coalition headed by the Janata Dal Secular in Karnataka.

According to the Bloomberg Quint news report, Congress earned one-fourth of the funds than BJP in the financial year ending March 2017. The BJP declared an income of Rs 1,034 crore ($152 million) during this period, an increase of 81 percent from a year ago. While in comparison, the Congress received Rs 225 crore, a drop of 14 percent from the previous year.

The latest move by the India’s grand old party is similar to Aam Aadmi Party, which also seeks online donations to fund its campaigns.