Assembly polls in Andhra Pradesh to be held on 13 May

Voting for Assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh will begin on 13 May, said Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar while announcing dates for Lok Sabha 2024 and Assembly elections in four states.

The state has 25 Lok Sabha and 175 Assembly seats. In the 2019 Assembly elections, the YSR Congress won 151 seats in the 175-member Assembly and 22 of the 25 Lok Sabha seats, securing a staggering 49.9% (Assembly) and 49.1% (Lok Sabha) vote share respectively. The Telugu Desam Party got 39.2% (Assembly) and 39.6% (Lok Sabha) share. It won just 23 seats in the Assembly and three seats in the Lok Sabha.

The Congress had managed to poll an aggregate of 3,68,878 votes across all the 175 Assembly constituencies, a mere 1.17% of the gross 3.13 crore-odd votes cast. It was worse than in 2014 when it managed 8,02,072 votes (2.77%). While the BJP got an aggregate of 2,64,303 votes (0.84%) in the 174 constituencies it contested. In 2014, in the company of TDP, the BJP had secured 6,32,599 votes (2.18%) in the 13 Assembly segments it contested. It had won four seats then. In the Lok Sabha battle to the BJP managed just 0.96% votes while the Congress got 1.29%.

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This year, the BJP, Telugu Desam Party (TDP), and Pawan Kalyan’s Jana Sena are contesting the Lok Sabha and Assembly polls together. In the 2024 elections, the BJP will contest six Lok Sabha and 10 Assembly seats, the TDP will vie for 17 parliamentary and 144 state seats while Pawan Kalyan’s Jana Sena will contest two Lok Sabha and 21 Assembly seats as per the agreed-upon deal.

According to the latest News18 opinion poll, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) may win the biggest chunk, 18 out of the 25 Lok Sabha seats, in Andhra Pradesh. This is a big jump for the coalition, which is led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and includes Chandrababu Naidu’s Telugu Desam Party and Pawan Kalyan’s Jana Sena. In 2019, the NDA bagged 2 seats.
The incumbent Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy, whose Yuva Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP) won 22 seats in 2019, may find itself at an appalling 7 seats this time, the survey showed. The I.N.D.I.A. alliance, which includes Congress, is projected to win zero seats.

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The election will be a test for Jagan’s populist welfare policies, promises of which had catapulted him to power in 2019. This time around, however, employment is the top issue for the respondents, with 67% saying it would play a role in their decision-making, clearly showing a hunger for opportunity. Law and order (49%) and infrastructure and development (40%) were the next two biggest issues, with inflation (35%) and corruption (26%) emerging as niggling issues. A surprising 17% said they would cast their vote based on religion.

Naidu’s emphasis on infrastructure and development could prove advantageous for him in the upcoming elections. During his nine-year tenure as the chief minister of the undivided Andhra Pradesh, he earned the moniker “CEO of the state” due to his focus on infrastructure-heavy policies. While his relentless efforts to develop the new state capital, Amaravati, contributed to his significant defeat in 2019, garnering 40% support could potentially sway the outcome in his favor this time.

The Election Commission has announced that approximately 97 crore Indians will be eligible to vote in this year’s Lok Sabha elections, marking a 6 percent increase in registered voters since 2019.

The electoral rolls were published nationwide in early February following an intensive Special Summary Revision 2024 process. Efforts are currently in progress to assess the possibility of conducting simultaneous elections throughout India.