Cong planning 5-member team under Maken, seek donations from QR code on new website
New Delhi, Nov 3 (IANS) The Congress, which appointed senior party leader Ajay Maken as its treasurer, is now mulling the idea of having five more people under him for better coordination and funding of the party.
The party will soon also come up with a QR code on its new website, which is under construction for seeking donations.
According to party sources, the party is mulling the idea of appointing senior party leader Milind Deora, former party chief Rahul Gandhi’s close aide Kanishka Singh, one retired IAS officer and two more persons in the Congress treasurers team.
The source said that the party’s new website is also in testing mode, which will be launched in the coming days.
The new website will also feature the QR code to seek donations.
The source said that the party will seek donations on special occasions from the public like Gandhi Jayanti or Republic Day or Independence Day.
The Congress has been facing a cash crunch for the last few years and is now planning to address the concern by seeking the donation from the people up to Rs 20,000.
Maken had replaced veteran party leader Pawan Kumar Bansal as the party’s treasurer last month.
His name was cleared by Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge for the post.
Electoral bonds generated donations worth over Rs 9,188 crore for all political parties put together till 2021-22, of which the BJP alone accounted for over 57 per cent as against 10 per cent for the Congress, according to ADR (Association of Democratic Reforms) data.
Between 2016-17 and 2021-22, the last year for which the data is available, seven national parties and 24 regional parties received a total donation of Rs 9,188.35 crore through electoral bonds.
Of this, the BJP received Rs 5,272 crore and the Congress received Rs 952 crore, while the rest went to other parties.
A five-judge constitution bench of the Supreme Court on Tuesday began hearing a batch of pleas challenging the validity of the electoral bond scheme for political funding of parties.
–IANS
aks/dpb
