The YSRCP, which swept to power in Andhra Pradesh with a landslide victory, has bagged 151 seats in the 175-member Legislative Assembly. It also won 22 out of 25 Lok Sabha seats. As counting in couple of constituencies continued past midnight with a close tussle between the YSRCP and the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), the final tally became clear early on Friday.
The TDP finished a distant second with 23 Assembly and three Lok Sabha seats.
Actor Pawan Kalyan's Jana Sena Party (JSP), which made its electoral debut, bagged one Assembly seat. Both the Congress and the BJP drew a blank in the state.
In 2014, the TDP had bagged 102 seats while the BJP, its ally at the time, had won four seats. The YSRCP had won 67 seats while two independents were also elected. In the simultaneous Lok Sabha polls, TDP had won 15 seats, YSRCP had bagged eight and the BJP scored two seats.
In the results declared late on Thursday night, TDP's Galla Jayadev retained Guntur Lok Sabha seat with a margin of 4,800 votes over his nearest rival M. Venugopal Reddy of the YSRCP.
TDP's Kesineni Nani and K. Rammohan Naidu also retained Vijayawada and Srikakulam Lok Sabha seats respectively after a close contest.
In a major blow, Naidu's son, Nara Lokesh, who was being groomed as the TDP chief's political successor, lost by 5200 votes to YSRCP's Alla Rama Krishna Reddy in Mangalagiri constituency in state capital region Amaravati. Though a minister in his father's cabinet since 2017, Lokesh was a member of the Legislative Council.
Several other ministers were also defeated. They include Kala Venkat Rao, who was also President of TDP's Andhra Pradesh unit, D. Uma Maheswara Rao, M. Buddha Prasad, P. Pulla Rao, Nakka Anand Babu, S. Chandramohan Reddy and P. Narayana.
Senior TDP leader Kodela Sivaprasada Rao, who was Speaker of the state Assembly, also lost the polls.
Meanwhile, in Gajuwaka constituency in Visakhapatnam district, Pawan Kalyan lost to YSRCP's T. Nagireddy by over 16,000 votes. The actor also tasted defeat in Bhimavaram constituency in West Godavari district where Grandhi Srinivas of YSRCP emerged victorious with over 8,000 votes. The debut of Pawan’s party was worse than Praja Rajyam Party (PRP) floated by his elder brother and superstar K. Chiranjeevi in 2009. PRP had bagged 18 seats in the 294-member Assembly of then undivided Andhra Pradesh.
Jagan Mohan Reddy, who will take oath as the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh on May 30 in Vjiayawada, on Thursday said that the massive mandate given by the people had increased his responsibility.
"Out of five crore population of the state, God gives one person the opportunity to become the chief minister; and God and people of my state today have given me that opportunity. I promise that I will bring about governance that this country would look up to," he said.
"People elected my father in 2004 and they re-elected him in 2009. I assure people that I will stand by them and put in every effort which needs to be put in so that history repeats again," Jagan added.
IANS inputs