R Krishna Das
If the volume of donation in individual capacity is any parameter, senior leader and country’s noted lawyer Kapil Sibal is the most committed Congressman.
Having been dubbed as “dissident” in the Congress for joining the league of 23 leaders, Sibal is the biggest individual contributor to the party fund in financial year 2019-20. He along with other leaders wrote to the party president seeking organizational overhaul to strengthen the organisation.
The ‘contribution report’ filed by party treasurer Vinod Kumar Bansal to the Election Commission of India underlined that Kapil Sibal had contributed Rs 3 crore to the party fund and was the biggest individual donor. The party received a sum of Rs 139 crore from the donors contributing above Rs 20,000.
After the Bihar debacle, Sibal reiterated to “strengthen” the party and stressed for introspection. But a section of senior leaders criticised him and stated his comment had “hurt the sentiments” of party workers across the country. With a few leaders echoing the views expressed by Sibal, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said in a series of tweets, “There was no need for Mr Kapil Sibal to mention (sic) our internal issue in the Media, this has hurt the sentiments of party workers across the country.” Gehlot contributed Rs 75000 to the party fund.
The man who advocates “sweeping changes” and a democratic overhaul of the party with a focus to make Congress more effective and an alternative to the BJP has never faltered to donate vigorously to the party fund.
On the corporate side, the biggest contributors were Prudent Electoral Trust, a fund primarily funded by Airtel India Limited, which contributed Rs 31 crore to the Congress party fund. ITC, the Kolkata-based multinational conglomerate was another major donor to the party fund with the parent company contributing Rs 13 crore while its subsidiaries ITC Infotech and Russell Credit Limited gave Rs 4 crore and Rs 1.4 crore respectively.
Many senior Congress leaders like Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Manmohan Singh contributed Rs 54,000 each. Anand Sharma, Shashi Tharoor, Milind Deora, Ghulam Nabi Azad – leaders who were part of Group of 23 who signed the organizational overhaul letter, also contributed Rs 54,000 rupees.
