Andhra Pradesh Elections: Chandrababu Naidu emerges kingmaker as TDP alliance races towards clean sweep in Assembly, Lok Sabha polls

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TDP chief Nara Chandrababu Naidu is going to play the king maker at the Centre this time around as his party is leading in 127 Assembly segments in a strong comeback.
TDP chief Nara Chandrababu Naidu is going to play the king maker at the Centre this time around as his party is leading in 127 Assembly segments in a strong comeback.

Amaravati: As the early trends showed that the TDP-NDA is crossing the majority mark in the Assembly elections by exactly reversing number of seats, the alliance is racing with leads in 16+5 Lok Sabha segments, Nara Chandrababu Naidu is going to play the king maker at the Centre this time around. Naidu’s TDP is leading in 127 Assembly segments in a strong comeback.

The party contested 17 of the 25 Lok Sabha seats and it emerged that it has got support from across the state. BJP is likely to win 3 seats while Jana Sena is leading in 2 segments.

Of the 175 seats in state assembly, TDP was leading in 127 seats, its ally Jana Sena in 19, BJP six, taking the NDA total to 152 seats as compared to total decimation for Jagan Mohan Reddy led YSR Congress party, which as of now is bagging only 23 seats. Naidu is set to return as the chief minister.

Chandrababu Naidu was part of the NDA government between 2014 and 2019. He left the NDA before 2019 Lok Sabha polls and joined the Congress-led UPA alliance to lose in both Lok Sabha and assembly polls. Soon after the loss, he distanced himself with the Congress and became part of NDA in March 2024, just a few days before the national elections were announced.

After being jailed by YS Jagan Mohan Reddy in a corruption case in November 2023, Naidu has emerged strongly back at the hustings. Political experts said that his arrest ensued a sympathy for him and allegations of misgovernance and corruption against YSRCP MLAs worked in favour of the TDP.