Haryana Congress has earned over Rs2 crore from ticket aspirants who want to contest the Assembly polls in October this year, though the response for contesting the polls has been extremely poor this time.
Thursday was the last date for applying for party ticket and each aspirant was asked to deposit Rs10,000 as application fee besides Rs325 for membership fee.
Raj Kumar, who works in the Haryana Congress office here, said the party this time is charging Rs10,000 from each candidate who sought the forms. Besides, Rs325 per applicant is the fee for membership for last five years.
In addition Rs500 was also charges which is refundable. But as most of the applicants do not ask for this refund, the amount goes in party coffers.
After the humiliation in the recent lok Sabha elections in Haryana, ruling Congress has got dull response from the applicants as vet few want to contest the polls given the poor prospects of the party.
The party which used to see mammoth crowd of applicants at congress Bhawan in the earlier elections failed this time sell even 2,000 application forms for the 90 Assembly segments of the state.
“We have got 1,480 application forms so far”, said Sanjay Chhokar, spokesperson of state congress.
However, in the last assembly elections, Congress Bhawan received more than 10,000 application forms, added Raj Kumar.
Asked about the poor response from ticket seekers, the Congress spokesman said, “last time application forms were completely free of cost, and now we are charging for it. Probably the prospective candidates are
reluctant”.
Due to the poor response of applicants across the state, the party had to extend the last date of submission of forms from July 20 to July 31. Despite extension, the response has been poor,” added another senior congressman.
Party sources said that of the applicants, more than 50 per cent are youths.
The numbers of women applicants, however, has increased this time as more than 200 of the total applicants are women.
Important leaders, sitting MlAs and ministers, including Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Cabinet Minister Randeep Singh Surjewala, finance minister Harmohinder Singh Chattha and other Hooda loyalists do not have challengers in their constituencies and will be the sole applicant.
Hooda’s bete noire Captain Ajay Singh Yadav, who withdrew his resignation on Thursday from the State Cabinet, after resigning in a dramatic way, was the first person who had applied for contesting State Assembly elections at Haryana congress Bhawan. His son Chiranjeev also applied for contesting assembly elections.
Even Chaudhary Birender Singh, MP from Rajya Sabha, who is ready to shift his loyalty to the BJP had also purchased form of application for MlA seat from State Congress Bhawan here but till late in the evening didn’t apply.