General Elections 2014: Andhra Pradesh – State Profile

Neha Attre

The 16th Lok Sabha elections are crucial in the state as they are taking place after the Centre`s nod on creation of separate Telangana state.

The bill to create the 29th state of the country was passed by Lok Sabha on February 19 and Rajya Sabha on February 20. The state has 42 Lok Sabha seats including 25 from Seemandhara and 17 from Telangana regions. The elections will take place in two phases on April 30 and May 7. After the bifurcation of the state, Andhra Pradesh will have 175 Assembly seats and Telangana will have 117 seats. The key political parties in the state are Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party, YSR Congress party and Telugu Desam Party. In the General Elections 2009, Congress won with a majority of 33 seats. The last chief minister of the state was N Kiran Kumar Reddy from the Congress party who resigned protesting against the creation of Telangana state.