Vijayawada: It is vacation time and second-rung leaders and followers/supporters of leaders belonging to various political parties are double happy as they are now able to enjoy pleasure trips with money spent by others. Candidates who contested the elections, probably for the first time in Andhra Pradesh, sponsored pleasure trips of their cadre.
For the hard work they put in during the one-month campaigning period, the candidates of various political parties are rewarding their cadre by sponsoring pleasure trips to tourist spots.
With elections getting completed, many of the candidates have been spending quality time with their families, focusing on their businesses and doing their personal works.
After having spent money heavily during the elections, now, they have started thinking of their cadre, who worked for nearly 18 hours a day to woo the voters in 175 Assembly and 25 Parliamentary constituencies.
It is learnt that each of the leaders are being offered anything between Rs 10,000 to Rs 25,000.
While some candidates are booking the tickets and sending their followers on trips to tourist places, some others are offering money to them and asking them to make all the arrangements themselves for the trips.
A leader of a mainstream political party, who worked as a manager to a wealthy candidate, during the polls, said that the TD and YSRC cadres clashed with each other at many places as both the parties considered the polls a prestigious issue.
He said that the supporters of candidates belonging to various political parties had just 15 days to campaign and so had to work overtime to complete touring the entire state.
He reminded that the poll notification was issued on March 13 and that the last date for filing nomination was March 25 and for withdrawal, it was March 28, leaving only 12 days for campaigning.
Canvassing stopped on April 9 evening.
But their work did not stop there, they had to work very hard till late in the night on the polling day as the EVMs developed glitches and polling was delayed in many places, he said.
He said that a majority of the candidates had already went to various tourist spots along with their families and friends. Now, they are sending their supporters on pleasure trips, he added.
The candidates, it is learnt, are sending their cadre to Goa, Chennai, Bengaluru, Mysore, Ooty and other places.
