Voters in Andhra Pradesh are all set to cast their vote on April 11 for simultaneous Assembly and Lok Sabha elections. This is the first Assembly elections in the state after it was bifurcated in 2014.
A little over 3.93 crore voters in Andhra Pradesh will decide the fortunes of 319 candidates for Lok Sabha seats and 2,118 candidates in Assembly polls. Authorities have set up 46,120 polling stations, of which 9,000 booths are considered sensitive.
Ruling Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) are locked in a direct fight for power. Actor-politician Pawan Kalyan and his Jana Sena Party, which is making its first direct electoral debut, is contesting in alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Left parties. Positioning themselves as an alternative, they may influence the verdict in few constituencies.
The prospects of both the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress, which are contesting on their own, appear bleak.
In the 2014 elections, the TDP had bagged 102 seats while its then ally BJP had won four seats. The YSRCP had won 67 seats. Two Independents were also elected while the Congress did not get a single seat.
In the simultaneous elections held for the Lok Sabha, the TDP had bagged 15 seats while the BJP got two. YSRCP candidates were elected from eight constituencies.
Chief Minister and TDP President N. Chandrababu Naidu, YSRCP President Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, Pawan Kalyan, Naidu's son Nara Lokesh, Naidu's brother-in-law and actor N. Balakrishna and state Congress chief Raghuveera Reddy are among the prominent candidates.
Key contestants for the Lok Sabha seats include former Union Ministers Kishore Chandra Deo, Ashok Gajapathi Raju, Kotla Surya Prakash Reddy (all TDP), M.M. Pallam Raju and J.D. Seelam (Congress), D. Purandeswari (BJP), state BJP chief Kanna Lakshminarayana and former CBI Joint Director V.V. Lakshminarayana (Jana Sena).
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