The Congress is inviting applications from those aspiring for contesting the coming Assembly and Lok Sabha elections on the party ticket, Pradesh Congress Committee general secretary Dronamraju Srinivasa Rao said here on Wednesday.

The aspirants can submit their applications at the Congress office at Yellammathota near Jagadamba Junction between February 7 (Thursday) and 10, he said.

“Services rendered to the party and positions held in the past will be the main criteria for allocation of party tickets. The application fee for MLA ticket is ₹2,000 and the same for Lok Sabha ticket is ₹5,000,” City Congress president Behara Bhaskara Rao told the media here.

Mr. Srinivasa Rao said that the Narendra Modi government had reneged the State on several counts—be it according Special Category Status (SCS) or separate railway zone with Visakhapatnam as its headqurters. “The BJP has lost moral right of seeking votes in Andhra Pradesh,” he said.

‘Will go it alone in A.P.’

Referring to the Congress-TDP alliance, Mr. Srinivasa Rao said that the Congress would go alone in the State as a decision to this effect had been taken by the top brasses of the Congress and the TDP. He recalled that the Congress was scorned post-bifurcation but now the Opposition parties were feeling that the Congress was a ‘better’ option than the BJP . AICC president Rahul Gandhi had promised that the party, if voted to power, would grant SCS to the State.

Mahila Congress leader Pedada Ramani Kumari was present.