Not enough money for campaigning as party accounts frozen: Congress

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Congress on Tuesday said its candidates were facing a bit of a financial crunch while campaigning for the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls due to the party's accounts being frozen by the Central government.

Congress Working Committee member and MP from Thiruvananthapuram, Shashi Tharoor said that all party candidates "were in a financial crunch."

"The party has had its accounts frozen and is unable to give us the kind of support we would have liked to have from our party.

"We have, nonetheless, very loyal and hardworking Congress workers everywhere who are doing what they can and when the Election Commission allows us to raise funds legally from the public, we will do so," Tharoor said.

He expressed confidence that the public will not let the Congress campaign stumble because of a lack of money.

Leader of Opposition in the Assembly V D Satheesan too pointed out that there was a lack of funds for the poll campaigning.

"We cannot provide funds to our workers like the BJP and the CPI(M) can. The people of Kerala know that. Through their votes they will show that democracy is more important than money and propaganda," he said.

Satheesan alleged that India was being ruled by a fascist government which froze the accounts of the main opposition party in the country -- "it is something unheard of in the entire world".

"We are fighting against such a fascist government, unlike the CPI(M)," he contended.