Aspirants fall into money trap oney down the drain

Vijayawada: It may very well be a case of “spend in haste and repent at leisure” for many of the political hopefuls in Krishna district.

These political hopefuls, or aspirants for tickets, in other words, had spent crores of rupees publicising themselves and the party they hoped to represent.

These hopefuls, and there are many of them, are now cursing themselves for having spent more than they could afford when they were not given any concrete assurances by the leadership of the party.

Most of these hopefuls had been named constituency in-charges by all the major political parties.

To their shock, aspirations of a majority of these hopefuls have been crushed in the build-up to the general elections. 

Matters have come to such a head that almost all of them are expected to revolt against their parties.

In fact, several aspirants from the YSR Congress and the Telugu Desam have already started opposing the parties’ stance on various issues, even as they blame themselves for spending crores of rupees.

Recently, a city-based industrialist and YSRC Vijayawada Parliamentary candidate opposed the party’s choices in the selection of candidates’ for the Assembly seats.

This industrialist is believed to have already spent nearly Rs 9 crore, but is now gradually distancing himself from the party.

The YSRC had also relieved former legislator J. Ramesh Babu and former ZP vice-chairperson T. Padmavathi from their posts as in-charges of Mylavaram and Penamaluru constituencies respectively.
They are believed to have spent lakhs on organising party activities in the last three years.

Following their removal from the in-charges’ posts, a revolt appears on the cards.

Similarly several aspirants for Assembly tickets have already spent crores of rupees and are now in despair.

The TD leadership recently refused to give the ticket to its Vijayawada West constituency in-charge Buddha Venkanna and also replaced him as city party president.

According to sources, Venkanna has already spent more than his financial stature.

TD Vijayawada East constituency in-charge Gadde Rammohan, Central constituency in-charge Bonda Umamaheswara Rao and Parliamentary constituency in-charge Kesineni Srinivas (Nani) have been organising party activities by spending crores of rupees.

Despite this, speculation is rife in party circles that their hope of being named the candidates for these seats may not come true.

A former legislator and TD in-charge of a constituency, on condition of anonymity, said that almost every constituency in-charge from all major political parties has spent over Rs 1 crore, while aspirants for Lok Sabha tickets have spent between Rs 5 crore and Rs 10 crore.

How these leaders will react if the tickets are given to someone else is the million dollar question.