New Delhi: Confident over the coming assembly elections in Maharashtra and Haryana, the Congress has started taking applications from prospective ticket seekers in order to energize and involve the local leaders and workers ahead of the polls likely in November.
According to party insiders, a nominal fee of Rs 20,000 per application for the general category and Rs 5,000 per application for the reserved category is being charged to sift the serious candidates from a mad rush for tickets that is usually associated with the poll season.
“It helps create a momentum in favour of the party. All those who have worked hard for years and are keen to contest the polls get excited over the start of election related activity. The fee is nominal just to ensure only the serious ones apply,” AICC secretary in charge of Maharashtra Asish Dua told ETV Bharat.
“The Congress was very strong in the state years ago and we are confident that we will improve our position significantly. As we are contesting the coming polls together with our allies, joint strategies are being worked out with MVA partners Shiv Sena UBT and NCP-SP,” he said.
According to party insiders, a joint meeting of the top leaders of the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi was held in Mumbai on July 5 in which a strategy to ensure coordination at the district level was discussed.
“Soon a meeting of the district-level heads of the alliance partners will be held. We want the alliance to work on the ground. This will also lead to joint campaigns. The issues of neglect of farmers, Maratha reservation, unemployment and corruption would be major planks against the state government,” Maharashtra Congress Working President Mohamad Arif Naseen Khan told ETV Bharat.
“We have started taking applications from ticket seekers but there has been no discussion of seat-sharing as yet. The main focus is on fielding the winning candidate in each assembly seat. During the Lok Sabha elections the MVA had a lead in 146 assembly seats out of a total of 288. In the coming polls, we will take this to 200 seats,” he said.
In Haryana, state unit chief Udai Bhan and former chief minister BS Hooda are driving the party workers and have asked them to conduct an extensive mass contact program till the elections and take up the issues of the people.
“The people are angry with the BJP government and want a change. The Congress did very well during the Lok Sabha polls in the state and is poised to form a government by winning at least 70 out of 90 seats in the assembly. That is a possibility but we have to be with the people and fight for them. The BJP and JJP workers are joining the Congress across the state. The Congress is strong in the state and will win the coming elections on its own,” Hooda told ETV Bharat.
“The state government has been making anti-people policies over the past five years but is now making new promises. We would like to ask them what happened to the old promises,” he added.
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