KPCC president M M Hassan claim falls short by Rs 2 crore

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Janamochana Yatra led by KPCC president M.M. Hassan did not go far in mobilising the expected funds for the party. Though he claimed that Rs 15 crore had been collected, the funds touched only Rs 13 crore. The collection drive was hit by speculations unleashed midway during the yatra that Mr Hassan was on the way out as KPCC president. The party initially hoped to raise at least Rs 25 crore.

Several block committees and DCCs have been told to remit their quota before May 10. The local leaders have a tough time mobilizing funds when the UDF is out of power. Thrissur DCC has given the maximum of Rs 2.13 crore. Kannur, Palakkad and Ernak-ulam gave more than Rs 1 crore each. Malappuram, Kasargod and Kozhikode DCCs contributed less funds compared to the others. Alappuzha DCC gave Rs 50 lakh.

“Midway through the yatra, certain quarters in the party spearheaded a campaign that Hassan will be removed from the helm. This led the booth committees to go lax in collecting the funds,” said a Congress MLA. The meetings of mandalam presidents were held across the state on Saturday. They were asked to remit the funds by May 10. Each booth committee was entrusted to pay Rs 15, 000 and there are a total of 24, 000 booth committees. A KPCC office-bearer told DC that the receipt books were printed only for amounts above Rs 50.

“Receipts for Rs 20 would have been useful in rural as well as urban areas where people can easily part with such small amounts. We could not go to the coastal areas with higher denomination receipt books when they are recovering from the after-effects of cyclone Ockhi,” said a KPCC general secretary.