Congress mandates MLAs, MLCs and MPs to donate a month's salary to strengthen party coffers

Congress will strengthen its coffers by conducting door-to-door and online donation drives as well as making its MPs, MLAs and MLCs contribute one month of their salary to the party every year.

Every member, who is paying income tax, will also have to shell out Rs 1,000 every year while sarpanch, gram panchayat heads, block and district panchayat presidents will have to contribute one of their honorarium every year.

The party has made these mandatory through amendments to the Constitution at the just concluded Plenary Session. The plans are expected to fill more money in the party coffers, which leaders say are practically empty if one takes the size of the organisation.

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Earlier, a Congress member with a net monthly income of Rs 500 had to pay Rs 1 per month while those who have an income above Rs 500 had to pay 1 per cent of the income.

One of the interesting amendments is the inclusion of door-to-door donation drive, which was suggested by Kerala leaders at a meeting of the group that discussed organisational issues at the Udaipur Chintan Shivir.

At the Udaipur conclave, the Kerala unit of Congress had also suggested that the party should identify workers who can “donate a fixed amount of money for the party’s functioning on a monthly basis”. They said the donors should be able to deposit money into a specified bank account by the 10th of each month.

The party is also giving a digital push to the donation drive by readying itself to accept it online.

Every PCC member or office-bearer will have to undertake a campaign for collecting funds and it should be collected against coupons of such denomination as directed by the state or central leadership. Funds could also be collected against receipts.

Contributions received from members, delegates, office-bearers and elected representatives barring AICC members will be distributed among various arms of the party. While 50% of the contribution to party fund by members will go to the Central Election Fund while 25 per cent will go to the AICC, and 12.5 per cent each to state committee and district committee.

The delegate fee has also been increased – a DCC delegate will have to shell out Rs 500, a PCC delegate Rs 1,000 and AICC delegate Rs 3,000.