AP Congress Faces Dearth of Contestants For Bypolls
posted on Apr 26, 2012 @ 12:43PM
Like never before, the Congress party in Andhra Pradesh is facing dearth of contestants for the upcoming bypolls for 18 assembly seats in the state. The PCC chief has listed out 14 probabale candidates and 8 of them have backed out citing various reasons. This has never happened in Congress history, not even at the time of 1994 debacle, in which the party had won a meagre 26 assembly seats.
PCC chief Botsa Satyanarayana had prepared a list of 14 names as candidates for the bypolls last week. However, Congress sources said many of them were mere probables who are now conveying to the state party bosses that they would prefer not to contest. "Publicly, the leaders are saying that they are backing out because they do not have the Rs 6-7 crore needed for bypoll expenditure. However, the reality is that the candidates think they don't stand a chance as the YSR candidates are very strong," said party sources.
The main reason for the paucity of candidates for the Congress is said to be former chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy's policy of grooming his protege as the sole leader in each assembly segment. As a result, with the sitting Congress legislators jumping into the Jagan bandwagon, the Congress now has no leader of stature left in the 18 constituencies. A desperate Congress high command is now sending AICC leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad and Vayalar Ravi to Hyderabad this weekend to persuade Congress leaders to take on YSR Congress in the bypolls being dubbed as mini-assembly elections.