Chandigarh, January 9: The Congress party has launched a new campaign in Punjab to raise funds in the run-up to next year’s Lok Sabha polls. Every Congress MLA and councillor in the state has been assigned the task of selling two-year subscription of the National Herald, a newspaper associated with the party, for around Rs 1900 each. Those assigned the task have been told to submit duly-filled subscription forms along with the money raised early next week, Jalandhar Mayor Jagdish Raja told.
Congress councillors and party MLAs in the state have 50 subscription forms each that they need to get filled.
In Jalandhar Municipal Corporation (JMC), there are 68 Congress councillors out of total 80 councillors and all of them have 50 forms each.
The subscription form for the National Herald, a copy of which is available with The Indian Express, says that 100 Sunday issues will be provided as part of a special subscription of Rs 1900 under the “NH Privilege Offer”.
“We were given this task around a week back and now we are going to the people of our respective wards and requesting them to take the subscription of National Herald for two years,” said a woman councillor, adding that she has never got such task from the party high command in the past.
“It is difficult to convince people to subscribe to the paper and in many cases the councillors are paying from their own pocket to meet the target,” said a senior Congress councillor.
Jalandhar Mayor Jagdish Raja said that they were asked by the party to get subscription forms filled in order to raise party fund. “We have got several forms filled in the corporation area in Jalandhar Cantt and we plan to submit them soon. Remaining area would also be covered in a week or so,” he said, adding: “We have a target of 50 forms each, but if someone fails to meet it, the criteria is being lowered to some extent.”
