Amaravati, January 24: Kicking off the poll process, the Andhra Pradesh Congress unit on Wednesday started accepting applications from candidates planning to contest the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections to be held in a few months. According to Manickam Tagore, AICC in-charge for AP, following the footsteps of the Karnataka and Telangana Congress model, the Andhra Pradesh unit will charge Rs 15,000 as the "donation" from the aspiring candidates of the reserved category and Rs 25,000 for the rest, for Lok Sabha while it is Rs 10,000 for candidates (unreserved category) and Rs 5,000 for the reserved in case of assembly ticket.

Applications will be accepted for the next two weeks, he said. Tagore further said all the applications will be processed through the Pradesh Election Committee and afterward it will go through the screening committee of the AICC. Then the list will be sent to the Congress Central Election Committee headed by President Mallikarjun Kharge. "It (Congress) is a democratic party. Therefore, any Congress worker can come and apply," Tagore said. Andhra Pradesh: Congress Chief YS Sharmila Travels in APSRTC Bus, Interacts With Passengers in Srikakulam (Watch Videos)

He said there is good response from the people to contest on Congress tickets and the 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 said there is tremendous response from the public for the meetings of newly appointed state party president YS Sharmila. Andhra Pradesh: CM Jagan Mohan Reddy-Led Government a Puppet in Hands of BJP, Says Congress Leader YS Sharmila

Currently, Sharmila is on tour of north Andhra Pradesh to revive the ‘fortunes' of the Congress party, which lost most of its support base on splitting the united Andhra Pradesh in 2014. On Wednesday in Visakhapatnam, she alleged that her Chief Minister brother, YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, failed in getting special status for Andhra Pradesh which was promised during the state bifurcation. On Tuesday, she travelled in an APSRTC bus from Palasa to Ichapuram and interacted with the passengers. She threw a challenge to the YSRCP government to show her the development that the ruling party is claiming.