Starting the election process, the Andhra Pradesh Congress unit began accepting applications from candidates wanting to contest the upcoming Assembly and Lok Sabha Elections in a few months.
Manickam Tagore, AICC in-charge for AP, shared that, inspired by the Karnataka and Telangana Congress model, the Andhra Pradesh unit will charge Rs 15,000 as a “donation” from aspiring candidates of the reserved category and Rs 25,000 for others for Lok Sabha. For assembly tickets, it is Rs 10,000 for unreserved category candidates and Rs 5,000 for reserved.
Applications will be accepted for the next two weeks, he mentioned.
Tagore added that all applications will go through the Pradesh Election Committee and then the AICC screening committee. The final list will be sent to the Congress Central Election Committee led by President Mallikarjun Kharge.
“It (Congress) is a democratic party. Therefore, any Congress worker can apply,” Tagore said.
He noted a positive response from people wanting to contest on Congress tickets, and donations can be made through ‘Donate for Desh,’ an online crowdfunding campaign.
Andhra Pradesh has 175 assembly and 25 Lok Sabha seats.
Meanwhile, former APCC chief G Rudraraju mentioned a tremendous response to the public for meetings with newly appointed state party president YS Sharmila.
Sharmila is currently touring north Andhra Pradesh to revive the Congress party’s fortunes. On Wednesday in Visakhapatnam, she alleged that her Chief Minister brother, YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, failed to secure special status for Andhra Pradesh as promised during the state bifurcation in 2014.
On Tuesday, she traveled in an APSRTC bus from Palasa to Ichapuram, interacting with passengers and challenging the YSRCP government to show her the claimed development.
