Hyderabad: YS Jaganmohan Reddy is set to sweep the elections in Andhra Pradesh, with a perfect 10/10 victory in the Lok Sabha elections and a whopping 147 of the state’s 175 assembly seats. The majority mark in the state assembly stands at 88.
Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu’s Telugu Desam Party, which ruled the state since the bifurcation of Telangana in 2014, has failed to win a single Lok Sabha seat. In the assembly, he is likely to be reduced to 26 seats. One seats may go to the BJP.
For Chandrababu Naidu – who walked out of the NDA last year and became an interlocuter of the opposition – the outlook could be grim. The leads indicate that the opposition’s performance nationally has also fallen far short of expectation.
It was Jaganmohan Reddy’s push for the Special Status for Andhra Pradesh that’s said to be at the bottom of Chandrababu Naidu’s move to part company with the BJP and join the opposition camp.
In view of Reddy’s record-breaking padyatras, there were questions why the Chief Minister, despite being closer to the Centre, could not get the Special Category status promised to Andhra Pradesh during the bifurcation of Telangana.
Counting of votes started this morning for the 543 seats of the Lok Sabha. Early leads show Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP has crossed 300 seats.
Exit polls have predicted that the BJP will retain power with a comfortable majority.
Twelve of 14 exit polls predicted that the NDA will get full majority with seats ranging from 282 to 365. An aggregate of exit polls predicted the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) will win 302 seats and the Congress and its allies 122.
A party or an alliance needs 271 seats to form the government, as the elections were held on 542 of the 543 Lok Sabha seats.
