Grappling with poll expenses, Cong puts onus on contestants

Hyderabad: The Congress party feels that the Assembly elections which would be held soon would be perhaps the costliest one in the last one decade. Hence, it needs to work out a perfect strategy to meet the challenges from the BRS. The party top leadership is of the opinion that it should not falter in selecting the “winning horses,” who are strong in all respects.

As the list of aspirants is increasing by the day, TPCC president A Revanth Reddy has asked them to submit an action plan explaining their strategy to win the polls, including what they would do for the constituency if they win. The three-member steering committee headed by Congress senior leader Muralidharan will finalise the candidates.

Top leaders told Hans India that the TPCC chief was holding a series of meetings with ticket aspirants from more than 60 assembly constituencies where the ruling BRS and Congress were equally strong. The party is also analysing the political equations in each Assembly segment where the BRS is strong. Finding a strong candidate in such constituencies is a big challenge for the TPCC.

For instance, Patel Ramesh Reddy and senior leader and former minister R Damodar Reddy are vying for ticket from the Suryapet Assembly segment. Ramesh Reddy is a strong follower of Revanth. However, the party wants to be absolutely sure on his chances of winning before taking a final decision.

It is also in the process of working out campaign strategies, aimed at exposing the failures of ruling party and the sitting MLAs. It will highlight the points from the action plan given by the selected candidates.

Another major problem which is bothering the TPCC is mobilisation of funds to meet poll expenditure. Being an opposition party, it feels matching the financial power of the ruling party is a major task.

To what extent the high command can support them is also to be seen. But since the expenditure is likely to be high, TPCC is also exploring various options available to it to mobilise funds while the major burden could fall on aspirants.