2019 Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly election

The 2019 Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly election were held in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh on 11 April 2019 for constituting the fifteenth legislative assembly in the state. They were held alongside the 2019 Indian general election.

The YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) won the election in a landslide, winning 151 of the 175 seats, with the incumbent Telugu Desam Party (TDP) winning 23. The Jana Sena Party (JSP) entered the legislature with one seat, while the Indian National Congress (INC), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Communist Party of India (CPI) and Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M)) failed to win any seats.

Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy was unanimously voted as legislature leader of the YSRCP, and was invited to form the government by the Governor of Andhra Pradesh, E. S. L. Narasimhan. This was the second assembly in Andhra Pradesh after the bifurcation of the state into Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

Previous Assembly
In the 2014 Andhra Pradesh Assembly election, the TDP, led by chief N. Chandrababu Naidu, in alliance with the JSP, led by chief Pawan Kalyan, and the BJP, emerged as the single largest party. With 88 seats required to win a majority, the alliance won 103 seats of the 175 seats. Naidu was invited to form the government to constitute the fourteenth legislative assembly by the Governor of Andhra Pradesh, E. S. L. Narasimhan. It was the first Assembly in Andhra Pradesh after the bifurcation of the state into Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

Background
Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy the leader of the main opposition in the Andhra Pradesh assembly, started his 3,648-km-long Praja Sankalpa Yatra on 6 November 2017. In this padayatra, Reddy launched an attack on the incumbent TDP government. He covered more than 130 out of the 175 assembly constituencies in the state, from the YSR Ghat in Idupulapaya at Kadapa to Ichchapuram in Srikakulam district. During this padayatra, he addressed 124 public meetings. Whereas the leader of JSP, Pawan Kalyan hurled allegations of corruption against the ruling TDP government and accused the BJP of inflicting injustice on Andhra Pradesh over the promised Special Category Status. JSP subsequently broke the alliance with TDP. The TDP also withdrew from the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in March 2018 over Special Category Status issue. The ruling alliance members TDP, JSP and BJP who subsequently broke away from each other contested independently in the 2019 assembly elections. In the four-cornered contest, the YSRCP led by Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy swept the polls.

Election day
The election was held in a single phase on 11 April for 175 assembly and 25 parliamentary constituencies. A 79.88% voter turnout was recorded by the end of the election day, which was 1.92% higher than the 2014 Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly election. 15,545,211 Male and 15,787,759 Female voters cast their votes in the election. Overall 31,333,631 of a possible 39,345,717 voters participated in the election.

The highest turnout of 85.93% was recorded in Prakasam district followed by Guntur district with 82.37%, while Visakhapatnam district recorded the lowest turnout of 73.67%. Addanki constituency recorded the highest voter turnout of 89.82% voting and Visakhapatnam West constituency registered the lowest turnout of 58.19%.

Reports and complaints of glitches and malfunctioning of the EVM were reported in nearly 50 constituencies which resulted in voters queuing up in the lines for long hours and subsequently resulting in violence among the supporters of the political parties. The incumbent Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu complained to the Election Commission of India (ECI) in New Delhi requesting to revert the electoral process to the ballot papers and subsequently requested the ECI to count and verify the Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) to ensure transparency, authenticity and proper declaration of the results. An incident of mismatch with one EVM-VVPAT took place in one of the constituency citing human error and another incident reported the casting of vote to one party on EVM resulted in the favor of the other in the VVPAT slip. The random checking of the VVPAT was only increased to a number of 5 EVM's.

Results
The results were announced on 23 May 2019, the day of the counting of ballots. YSRCP emerged as the single largest party with 151 seats. YSRCP sweeped the districts of Kadapa, Kurnool, Nellore, and Vizianagaram. The incumbent TDP bagged 23 seats whereas the JSP+ alliance managed to win a single seat Razole while the leader of the alliance Pawan Kalyan lost both the seats in Gajuwaka and Bhimavaram. The national parties INC and BJP were not able to win a single seat.

TDP candidate lost their security deposit in 1 out of 175 seats contested, JSP candidates lost security deposit in 121 out of 137 seats contested, BJP candidates lost security deposit in 173 out of 173 seats contested, Congress candidates lost security deposit in 174 out of 174 seats contested.

The JSP chief Pawan Kalyan also alleged that the YSRCP had come into the power through EVM malpractice.