Politically, Andhra Pradesh was the largest State in southern India before its division and formation of the State of Telangana. Currently, Andhra Pradesh has 25 Lok Sabha seats, equal to Rajasthan in the number of Lok Sabha seats.
In previous Lok Sabha election in 2019 all the seats in Andhra Pradesh witnesses direct contest between the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP). The YSR Congress Party won 22 seats and the TDP won 3 seats while these parties were runner against each other on all 25 seats. The YSRCP is one the new political parties in India which formed after breaking away from the Congress party like the All India Trinamool Congress, Nationalist Congress party, AINRC and many others.
Andhra Pradesh is one such State in which the Congress party has no representation at any level, either in parliament or in State legislature. The Congress party has no MLAs in many States like West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, NCT of Delhi, and Nagaland. The plight of the Congress party is clearly visible in Andhra Pradesh. The Congress party, which once ruled the State with more than a required majority, is looking for seats in the Assembly and Lok Sabha on which the party can save its deposit. In the 2019 Assembly election, which was held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha poll, the Congress party forfeited its deposit on all 174 contested seats. Similar is the case in the Lok Sabha election in which the Congress party forfeited its deposit on all 25 Lok Sabha seats. The Congress party garnered barely 1.31 per cent of votes in the 2019 Lok Sabha election in the State. Similarly, in the State Assembly election, the Congress party garnered only 1.17 per cent of the vote.
In the 2024 Lok Sabha election, both the main parties in the State, the YSRCP and the TDP, were interested in forging alliances with the BJP. The BJP, after much internal negotiation, decided to forge alliances with the TDP and Pawan Kalyan’s Jan Sena Party (JSP).
The Congress party again played its policy of divide and rule and engineered the joining of incumbent Chief Minister Jaganmohan Reddy’s sister, Y S Sharmila, into the party. It clearly demonstrated that the Congress party lost its all hope in Andhra Pradesh and adopted its policy of divide and rule. In Maharashtra, the Congress party adopted the same rule and convinced Raj Thackery to defect against his party and his family, too. The condition of the Congress party is so poor in Andhra Pradesh that none of the parties were interested in having seats shared with the Congress party. It is a big challenge for the Congress party to improve its vote percentage, even in fractions, to win any seat either in the Assembly or in Lok Sabha from the State. The Congress party is contesting the Lok Sabha election in alliance with the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Communist Party of India. It’s a big irony that these Congress parties locked horns against these parties in the neighbouring State of Kerala.
It looks like BJP is starting afresh with a long-term vision in Andhra Pradesh. For Lok Sabha and for Assembly elections, these three parties have amicably divided seats. The maturity of the alliance partners is reflected in Lok Sabha, where the BJP is contesting six seats, while in the Assembly, the party is contesting only ten seats. This shows the goodwill gesture of the BJP towards allies in all the States. During seat-sharing negotiations with its allies, the BJP never put pressure for undue seats and even gave the lion’s share to its allies. Even the BJP gave the post of Chief Minister to its allies on most occasions.
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