YSRC wants candidates to fund own campaigns

VISAKHAPATNAM: Jaganmohan Reddy’s YSRC, which is hoping to unseat the ruling TDP in the state, is looking for candidates who can fund their election campaigns from their own resources, party sources told TOI on Monday.
The party is asking potential candidates, both for the assembly and Parliament elections to be held on April 11, to not depend on financial support from the party for most of their election expenses, the sources said.
A senior YSRC leader in the city said he had sought an assembly ticket, but was told he will have to spend between Rs 15-20 crore on his own to fight the election.
“The party leadership told me they could contribute about Rs 5 crore for the election expenses, but the cost of the campaign is expected to be between Rs 15-20 crore. I backed out because I was expecting the party to bear a major part of the expenses,” he said, requesting anonymity.
Another aspiring candidate too said ticket-seekers have to demonstrate to the party leadership that they have the financial resources to not only fund their own campaign, but also chip in with funds for other candidates. “I am told that candidates seeking party tickets for Lok Sabha need to be ready to contribute Rs 5 crore to each candidate in the assembly segments of the parliamentary constituency. This proviso will discourage many people, who have served the party since its inception in 2011, from seeking the party ticket, leaving only those with large sums of cash at their disposal to seek the tickets,” he alleged.
When asked for his reaction, Malla Vijay Prasad, Visakhapatnam unit president of YSRC, said the party has asked its candidates to keep electoral expenses to the minimum. “The ceiling on election expenses for an assembly seat is Rs 28 lakh, while it is Rs 70 lakh for the Lok Sabha. The party has told potential candidates that they should keep electoral expenses to the minimum,” Vijay Prasad, who is likely to be the party’s candidate from Visakhapatnam West assembly seat, said.
Vijay Prasad added that the claimed election expenditure of between Rs 15-20 crore per assembly seat was ‘excessive’. “Very few would be willing to spend Rs 20 crore of their own money to contest an election that they could lose too.
There is a misconception that once a candidate is elected as an MLA he will make a lot of money by way of underhand dealings like awarding of contracts. It doesn’t happen like that,” says Vijay Prasad.
Despite repeated attempts, via text messages and telephone calls, V Vijayasai Reddy, MP and general secretary of YSRC, could not be reached for comment on the party’s modus operandi to select candidates.