Amaravati: It was a tsunami. The result of the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly election was nothing short of historic. The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) led NDA alliance made a clean sweep with an absolute majority of 165 out of 175 total seats crushing the ruling YSR Congress Party to just 10 seats, after the counting of votes completed on Tuesday.
Also, the TDP-Jana Sena-BJP alliance clinched 21 seats out of 25.
Of the 175 seats in state assembly, TDP alone rose victorious in 136 segments which in itself is an absolute majority to form the government.
TDP’s close ally Jana Sena sprang a stunning surprise with a 100 percent win rate as it emerged victorious in 21 out of 21 seats it contested.
BJP won in eight assembly segments, taking the NDA tally to 165 seats totally decimating YS Jagan Mohan Reddy led YSR Congress party, which failed to get at least 10 percent of the total seats to get the status of Opposition.
Chandrababu Naidu is set to return as the chief minister. On June 9, he will take oath as the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh for a fourth time. He was the chief minister of erstwhile Andhra Pradesh for two terms between 1995 and 2004, then the first chief minister of the remaining Andhra Pradesh from 2014 to 2019.
Extraordinary performance in Lok Sabha polls
The TDP put up an extraordinary show in the Lok Sabha elections as well. The TDP-alliance won 21 out of 25 seats in the state, with TDP alone winning 16 seats, Jana Sena 2 and BJP 3 seats.
The impressive victory in the state assembly as well as Lok Sabha election catapults Chandrababu Naidu, who played a major role in the national politics in the late 1990’s and early 2000s, once again to the center-stage in the national power play.
Incidentally, the BJP led NDA could not achieve an absolute majority at the Centre putting the ruling party in control of allies that include TDP which has 16 seats in its kitty.
As per reports, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his right hand man Amit Shah called Chandrababu Naidu to congratulate him on the great victory in the assembly election, and also reportedly offered him a key role in the NDA as coordinator. However, Naidu is reported to have taken 48 hours to decide on the issue.
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 and its allies Jana Sena and BJP.
The party contested 17 of the 25 Lok Sabha seats and it emerged that it has got support from across the state.
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 from the Congress and became part of NDA in March 2024, just a few days before the national elections were announced.
