Telangana Congress may collect Rs 25,000 to Rs 50,000 from ticket aspirants
HYDERABAD: The Telangana unit of Congress is likely to collect Rs 25,000 from SC and ST leaders and Rs 50,000 from others seeking party tickets in the upcoming Assembly elections. The sub-committee of the Pradesh Election Committee (PEC) is learnt to have taken a decision to this effect, which it is likely to announce very soon. It may be mentioned here that during the recently concluded Karnataka Assembly elections, the party collected Rs 2 lakh from the ticket aspirants in the form of a demand draft.
However, the party’s sub-committee, which will deal with the applications, is learnt to have decided to charge only a nominal fee to encourage the aspiring candidates. Besides paying the said fee, the aspiring candidates will also be required to submit all information, including any criminal cases registered against them, and informed a senior leader. The grand old party is expecting an average of four to five applications from all the 119 Assembly constituencies in the State.
Recently, the party decided to encourage BC leadership and to allocate at least two seats in each Lok Sabha constituency to them. Now that the party has also decided to charge a nominal fee, it is expecting more BCs to submit their applications.
The party will be accepting applications from August 18. The submitted applications will be filtered by the PEC, Screening Committee, Central Election Committee and finally by the Congress Working Committee. The Congress is planning to release its first list of candidates in constituencies where there are no disputes in September.