In an attempt to make some money from lok Sabha ticket aspirants, Himachal Congress has asked ticket seekers to deposit Rs25,000 fee to the party as application fee.
The party has asked all the lok Sabha ticket aspirants to apply through block and district level committees of the party and deposit the fees with the committees before December 15.
The HPCC president Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu said, “All the candidates aspiring to contest upcoming lok Sabha elections have been directed to file their application along with a fee of Rs25,000 with concerned district Congress committee by December 15 or by December 20 at HPCC office at Rajiv Bhawan Shimla.”
The decision in this regard was taken at the executive committee meeting held at Shimla on Friday.
Party sources said that a decent amount of money could be raised given the fact that there would be a lot of ticket-seekers for the four lok Sabha seats in the State. At present, only one of the four seats is represented by Congress. Pratibha Singh, wife of Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, won the Mandi seat in a by-election earlier this year.
Exercise for finalisation of tickets for lok Sabha election has begun in the Congress which is holding meetings at different districts and block levels to get the feedback after which the names will be shortlisted and sent to Central leadership.
Congress has already declared that by December-end names of candidates for lok Sabha election will be declared as candidates have to traverse long distances in each of the four constituencies of the State during campaigning. The party wants early declaration of the candidates so that they can start informal campaign.
Addressing executive committee members of the party, Sukhu said that panchayat-level Congress committees at district and block level will be constituted soon and training camps for these office bearers will be organised in coming future at district and block level for which framework is being finalised.
The HPCC spokesperson Naresh Chauhan said that party president also assured a solution to the problems of booth level workers and said a co-ordination committee will be formed consisting of representatives from party and Government and the booth level report will be shared with Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh.