All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) has on Wednesday told the party leaders “willing” to contest parliamentary polls to pay ₹25,000 when they submit their application forms for the same. ‘AIADMK has announced party workers who are willing to contest in Lok Sabha elections can apply from 4.2.2019 to 10.2.19 after paying ₹25,000. All 40 constituencies (39 Tamil Nadu and 1 Puducherry) listed’ reported ANI.
AIADMK has announced party workers who are willing to contest in Lok Sabha elections can apply from 4.2.2019 to 10.2.19 after paying Rs 25,000. All 40 constituencies (39 Tamil Nadu and 1 Puducherry) listed pic.twitter.com/TwJpckmJuE
— ANI (@ANI) January 30, 2019
AIADMK who has a significant voter base in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry has sought applications from the ticket seekers for these two states. Tamil Nadu and Puducherry have altogether 40 parliament seats (Tamil Nadu – 39 and Puducherry has 1).
Similarly, AIADMK had in 2014 General elections issued a similar notification for the party ticket aspirants, which were held in April-May that year. The AIADMK had, in December 2013, asked the party ticket aspirants to pay the same fee as sought for this year’s Lok Sabha polls.
Earlier, Punjab Congress has also issued similar directions and asked ticket aspirants to deposit ₹25,000 along with the application for seeking party’s ticket. The Punjab Congress also asked its Chandigarh counterpart to follow the same. The instruction to charge an application fee came from All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary in-charge of Punjab and Chandigarh Asha Kumari.
Congress Chandigarh Chief Pradeep Chhabra said that ‘The Decision was Communicated to us by Punjab Congress State Unit’. He added Both- Navjot Kaur Sidhu and Manish Tewari – will be asked to deposit the amount. Both Sidhu and Tewari applied for Congress ticket from Chandigarh last week. While Former Union Minister Pawan Bansal on Wednesday also applied for the ticket from the seat. Lok Sabha Polls: After Navjot Kaur Sidhu, Manish Tewari also throws hat; seeks Congress ticket from Chandigarh
However, this is not the first time that the party-state unit has levied an application fee for ticket seekers. Congress Party state chief Sunil Jhakar said “It is not happening for the first time. We have levied a fee earlier too,” he said.
A similar amount of ₹25,000 has been sought by Congress in four seats of Himachal Pradesh. However, Congress Haryana state seems indecisive on the issue.