THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Its national unit strapped for cash after the Income Tax department froze the party’s bank accounts over non-payment of dues, the Congress leadership in Kerala is mulling alternatives, including crowdfunding, to raise money to manage its campaigning for the Lok Sabha polls in the state.
Leader of Opposition V D Satheesan told reporters in Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday that they have been forced to go for crowdfunding in view of the dearth of funds.
The move comes after the AICC — which had termed the I-T department’s action as the BJP-led Union government’s attempt to deny the grand old party a level-playing field in the polls — expressed its inability to make available funds to its state units for campaigning.
Interestingly, a few young Congress leaders in the fray have kick-started crowdfunding without waiting for an official word from the state unit. Veteran candidates are expected to follow suit to sustain electioneering for the general elections spread across 42 days. Shafi Parambil, the UDF candidate in Vadakara, took a break from campaigning and flew to Dubai and Doha to meet Keralites. The Palakkad MLA was accorded a reception by Kerala Muslim Cultural Centre under the aegis of IUML and Indian Cultural and Arts Society, a cultural movement of Congress in the UAE, in Sharjah on Tuesday.
This is neither Shafi’s first crowdfunding drive — he had sought the support of Non-Resident Keralites in the 2021 assembly elections too — nor is he the lone UDF candidate to do so. Remya Haridas, the UDF pick for Alathur, has also sought people’s support to raise money.
‘People have realised BJP is playing vendetta politics’
The 2021 elections saw several Congress candidates initiate crowdfunding. Aritha Babu, the Youth Congress state vice-president who contested unsuccessfully from Kayamkulam, said her poll management team collected close to Rs 2 lakh towards the fag end of her campaigning.
“It was CWC leader Ramesh Chennithala who suggested I go for crowdfunding after we faced severe dearth of funds. We managed to provide posters to all booth committees with the money raised then,” Aritha told TNIE.
B R M Shafeer, who lost from Varkala in 2021, said, “The trend favours Congress this time, as people have realised BJP is playing vendetta politics.” Congress leaders told TNIE that people have already started showing sympathy to their candidates making fund mobilisation easier.
B S Anoop, who lost from Chirayinkeezhu, said people gave him anywhere from Rs 50 to several thousands, helping him raise Rs 3 lakh in 2021.
Youth leaders like M G Kannan and Malankeezhu Venugopal had also resorted to crowdfunding following fund crunch towards the fag end of their campaigning in 2021.
