Notwithstanding claims made by leaders of all political parties, the main criteria for considering the name of an aspirant for the Lok
Sabha or the state assembly ticket is his financial standing. Sources say that the first question any candidate who seeks a party ticket faces is, “Can you bear the expenditure?”
Apparently this is one factor that cuts across party divides; Congress, TDP,TRS and even the newly-formed PRP are keen on candidates funding their own electoral aspirations. Even PRP, which is fighting the election on the plank of social justice, is on the look out for rich candidates from weaker sections.
It is said that the Lok Sabha and assembly elections put together would cost the two major parties, Congress and TDP, more than Rs 1000 crore each. The TRS and PRP are also trying to catch up with this estimate. “Try for the ticket if you can mobilise a sum of two to three crore,” is the suggestion many aspirants get from their seniors. According to a conservative estimate, a candidate has to spend an average of Rs 3 crore per assembly segment, with some urban areas requiring more than Rs 6 crore per segment.
Since many of the candidates are either builders, mine owners, industrialists, liquor barons and contractors, money may not seem to be a big problem. This is also pushing up expenditure to very high levels in more than 150 constituencies in the state, says a Congress leader from Karimnagar.
Lok Satta leader Jayaprakash Narayan estimates that the expenditure by the principal parties would be around Rs 4 crore per constituency. “Even Obama, who won the American presidency cannot fight the election for Andhra assembly, because he is not rich enough to spend Rs 4 crore for the election,” he said.
