Politics of Andhra Pradesh

Formation of Andhra Pradesh

In December 1953, the States Reorganisation Commission was appointed to prepare for the creation of states on linguistic lines. Thus, merging the Telugu speaking region of Hyderabad state(Telangana) with Telugu speaking state of Andhra state, the central government, established a unified Andhra Pradesh on 1 November 1956.^[1][2]

Congress era

The Indian National Congress party won all the state elections from the emergence of the state in 1953 till 1983. Projects like Nagarjuna Sagar and Srisailam Dams were constructed during this time. There were ten different chief ministers from the formation of the state in 1956 till 1983.

Telangana movement

Marri Chenna Reddy formed the Telangana Praja Samiti party to lead the Telangana movement. In November 1969, there was a major split in the party which eventually led to the downfall of the movement. In September 1971, Kasu Brahmananda Reddy, the then Chief Minister, resigned his position to make room for a leader from Telangana to become the Chief Minister. On 30 September 1971, P. V. Narasimha Rao became the Chief Minister. The Telangana Praja Samiti was dissolved and its members rejoined the Congress.^[3]

Emergence of Telugu Desam Party

In 1983, N. T. Rama Rao, a popular Telugu actor established his Telugu Desam Party (Telugu Desam, meaning Land of Telugus) with the support of people's dissent arising out of frequent changes in chief ministers of Andhra Pradesh by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, on a platform of "Telugu Pride". Within nine months of its founding, Telugu Desam was voted to power and NTR became the first Non-Congress chief minister of Andhra Pradesh. .........

Nadendla Bhaskara Rao broke with the party and formed a state government with the help of the opposition Congress(I). However his government lasted only 31 days as he did not command a majority in the Assembly. NTR was reinstated to power on 16 September 1984.

Return of the Congress

The Congress returned to power when Marri Chenna Reddy was sworn in for his second term as chief minister on 3 December 1989. The Congress lasted in power until the elections of 1994.

NTR's second term

In the elections of 1994, N. T. Rama Rao's Telugu Desam Party ran advocating prohibition in response to a women's movement. He had then recently married his second wife Lakshmi Parvathi. NTR's campaign focussed on the rural areas which won him a significant majority in the state elections of 1995.

Second breakup of the Telugu Desam

When NTR became the Chief minister in 1994, he appointed one of his sons-in-law Nara Chandrababu Naidu as the Revenue Minister. Soon after the formation of the government in response to the growing influence of Lakshmi Parvati on the political decisions of NTR, Chandrababu Naidu convinced a majority of the TDP MLAsto support him and he held hostage of MLAs in viceroy hotel to elect him as the chief minister. Since most of the legislators had gone over to his side,he gate crashed telugudesam party and took the symbol cycle symbol he started taking development as agenda to avoid backlash of public due to his act of dethroning famous leader .he gradually gained popularity in the public as a leader with development motive and NTR incident faded away from peoples memories.The Anti Defection Law did not apply and the Telugu Desam Party label passed on to the Chandrababu Naidu faction. The NTR faction became TDP (NTR). NTR died on 18 January 1996 and Lakshmi Parvati succeeded him as the head of TDP (NTR) which no longer had any representation in the state legislature. Chandrababu Naidu's TDP won the next election with a thumping majority by his development motive and also with the help of vajapayee wave in which bjp government lost confidence vote in parliament by one vote, when it was defeated by the Indian National Congress whose state leader Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy became the chief minister.

2004 Assembly Elections

Under Sri Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy ("YSR"), the Indian National Congress party won the 2004 elections as part of a coalition with TRS. During the run-up to the 2004 elections, Rajasekhar Reddy was able bring a common platform and mutual agreement within the Andhra Pradesh Congress Party. His campaign took form of a three-month-long "padhayatra" or foot-walk. The elections resulted in the defeat of the then-ruling Telugu Desam Party under the leadership of N. Chandrababu Naidu. The congress also won the municipal elections in 2005 and district local body elections in 2006 and also Panchayat Elections in 2006.

2009 Assembly Elections

In the Andhra Pradesh general election, 2009 the Indian National Congress under the leadership of YSR won a simple majority by winning 156 of 294 assembly seats. Telugu Desam Party gained a few more assembly seats than the previous election. Praja Rajyam Party founded by Chiranjeevi won 16% of the votes. The TRS and the Left parties in combination won less than 7% of the votes. Lok Satta Party won its first Assembly seat and captured more than 1% vote share.

As Rajasekhara Reddy died on 2 September 2009 in a helicopter crash, K. Rosaiah of the Indian National Congress took charges as Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh. However Rosaiah resigned as Chief Minister on health grounds. The next day, on 25 November 2010, Chief Minister Nallari Kiran Kumar Reddy of Indian National Congress took charges as Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh.

2014 Formation of Telangana state

Kalvakuntla Chandrashekar Rao(KCR) started Telangana Rashtra Samithi(TRS) party in 2001 to lead the second phase of the Telangana movement which reached its peak during the period 2009-2014. This resulted in carving of the Telangana state on 2 June 2014. There was unsuccessful counter agitation in Rayalaseema and Coastal Andhra regions to stop the statehood.

2014 Assembly Elections

In the 2 June 2014 14th Assembly general election, Telugu Desam Party won 102 seats out of 174 Seats and N. Chandrababu Naidu became the first Chief Minister of bifurcated Andhra Pradesh.

See also

• List of Chief Ministers of Andhra Pradesh
• Government of Andhra Pradesh
• Elections in Andhra Pradesh

References

1. "APonline - History and Culture - History-Post-Independence Era". aponline.gov.in.
2. "dated November 3, 1956: Andhra Pradesh". The Hindu.
3. "APonline - History and Culture - History-Post-Independence Era". aponline.gov.in.

External links

• AP Elections 2009 MLA/MP winners list