Naidu’s TDP leads NDA’s decimation of YSRCP in Andhra, reduces Jagan to 11 Assembly and 4 LS seats

From being almost written off months before the polls, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP)-led alliance, comprising Pawan Kalyan’s Jana Sena Party (JSP) and BJP, on Tuesday handed the ruling YSR Congress (YSRCP) a drubbing, restricting it to 11 seats, down from the 151 it won in 2019.

While the TDP won 136 Assembly seats, the JSP and BJP emerged victorious in 21 and eight seats respectively. The Jagan Mohan Reddy-led YSRCP also put up a poor show in the Lok Sabha polls, which were held simultaneously with the Assembly polls, winning only four (Kadapa, Araku, Tirupati and Rajampet) of the 25 seats on offer. The TDP on the other hand won 16 seats while its allies won three (BJP) and two (JSP) respectively.

The anti-incumbency was evident in the results as Jagan was the only Cabinet member who managed to retain his seat in Pulivendla even as 26 of his ministers tasted defeat.

In Kuppam, TDP supremo Chandrababu Naidu secured a comfortable victory while Kalyan defeated sitting Kakinada MP Vanga Geetha by over 70,000 votes. Naidu’s son and TDP general secretary Nara Lokesh, who is credited with reviving the party with his Yuva Galam padyatra, won the Mangalagiri seat, which he had lost in 2019.

In the Amalapuram Lok Sabha seat, G Harish Balayogi, the son of former Lok Sabha Speaker G M C Balayogi, defeated nearest rival Rapaka Varaprasada Rao of the YSRCP while K Ram Mohan Naidu retained his Srikakulam seat. In the battle of siblings in Vijayawada, Kesineni Sivanath (Chinni) trumped his older brother Kesineni Srinivas (Nani).

The YSRCP headquarters in Tadepalle on the outskirts of VIjayawada wore a deserted look as supporters who had gathered there began to leave gradually as the trends started trickling in and showed the TDP’s dominance