The Andhra Pradesh Assembly elections, which will be held simultaneously with the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, are scheduled for May 13, 2024. Polling for the Lok Sabha will also be held simultaneously on the same date. The date of counting votes is June 4, 2024. The Election Commission of India (ECI) announced the poll schedule for the 175-member AP Assembly, along with that of the general election on Saturday, March 16. The state is set to see a three-way contest between the ruling YSR Congress Party led by Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, the three-party alliance between BJP, Telugu Desam Party and Jana Sena, and the Congress whose state unit is now headed by Jagan’s sister, YS Sharmila.
As part of the TDP-Jana Sena-BJP alliance, the BJP will contest from 10 seats, Jana Sena from 21 and TDP from the remaining 144 Assembly seats.
On March 14, Jana Sena chief and film actor Pawan Kalyan announced that he would be contesting the Assembly election from Pithapuram constituency. TDP has named 128 candidates so far. On March 16, Saturday, YSRCP released its full list of 175 candidates for the Assembly polls.
In the 2019 Assembly elections, the YSRCP swept the election with 151 seats, and the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) managed to win only 23 seats. YSRCP secured a vote share of 50%, while TDP secured only 39%. BJP’s vote share was only 0.84%, and Jana Sena’s vote share was 5.53%. Congress secured a vote share of 1.17%. Pawan Kalyan’s Jana Sena Party faced a humiliating defeat. Only one candidate won the election but he later deserted the JSP and joined the YSRCP. Pawan Kalyan who had contested the election from two seats lost them both.
In the previous Assembly elections, TDP, BJP, and Jana Sena contested separately. While the TDP and the BJP contested alone, Jana Sena contested in alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Left parties.
The TDP had walked out of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in 2018 as the BJP-led union government refused to grant special category status to Andhra Pradesh. The TDP-BJP-JSP coalition was formed again due to the efforts of Pawan Kalyan.
The YSRCP, meanwhile, has seen a wave of defections with many leaders including sitting MPs leaving for various reasons, such as the party’s choices in ticket allocation.