Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC) is supposed to be a professional political consultancy firm, working out strategies for the parties which hire it for helping them in the elections.
The consultancy firm charges hefty fees from the parties for extending its services. So, the I-PAC has been hired by YSR Congress party in Andhra Pradesh for a huge amount to work out winning strategies in the elections.
Apart from providing the feedback from the ground level to the party from time to time, the I-PAC also played a major role in the selection of candidates by party president and chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy by conducting periodical surveys on the performance of sitting MLAs and the winnability of prospective candidates.
According to party sources, Jagan has depended mostly on the feedback given by the I-PAC team in selection of majority of candidates, if not all.
He made changes in as many as 82 assembly constituencies, including dropping of some MLAs and reshuffling of the constituencies of others.
Though the I-PAC is believed to have done good work mostly, there have been reports of some of its field staff members indulging in corrupt practices.
A YSRCP leader said in some of the constituencies, the I-PAC team members collected huge money from the ticket aspirants to give a positive feedback to the party leadership about them.
“The amount ranged from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 10 lakh in some places. Since the ticket aspirants were aware that Jagan would largely go by the recommendations and field reports of the I-PAC team, they had to shell down the money in their eagerness to get the tickets,” the YSRCP leader said.
However, Jagan has selected candidates, not blindly on the recommendations of the I-PAC members, but only if these recommendations tallied with his own party intelligence inputs.
“So, many ticket aspirants have lost their money to the I-PAC members at the field level. They cannot ask for refund of the money, as it is Jagan who had the final say in the selection of candidates,” the party leader added.