1996 Indian general election in Andhra Pradesh

The 1996 Indian general election in Andhra Pradesh were held for 42 seats in the state. The result was a victory for the Indian National Congress which won 22 out of 42 seats. This was the first election contested by the TDP since its leader Chandrababu Naidu ousted the party founder N. T. Rama Rao in a palace coup in August 1995 and the latter's untimely death a few months later.

Background In August 1995, Nara Chandrababu Naidu overthrew the Government of Andhra Pradesh formed by the actor-turned-politician N. T. Rama Rao (NTR) in a coup d'état. With the support of 178–190 MLAs and NTR's family, Naidu forced NTR to resign and formed his own government. This led to a division in the Telugu Desam Party, founded by NTR, splitting in two camps – Telugu Desam Party (NTR) (TDP (NTR)) and Telugu Desam Party (Naidu) (TDPN) – the former headed by NTR and the later by Chandrababu Naidu, who is also the son-in-law to NTR.

Parties and alliances

Alliance/Party Flag Symbol LeaderSeats contestedUnited Front Telugu Desam Party N. Chandrababu Naidu 3642 Communist Party of India (Marxist) Harkishan Singh Surjeet 3Communist Party of India Sudhakar Reddy 3Indian National CongressY. S. Rajasekhara Reddy 42NTR Telugu Desam Party (LP) Lakshmi Parvathi42Bharatiya Janata PartyV. Rama Rao39All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen Sultan Salahuddin Owaisi1

Scholars view three groups to be dominating contestants in the majority of the constituencies – the Congress, Naidu's TDP faction and its allies, and Parvathi's TDP faction and its allies.

Congress (I) The Indian National Congress maintained a monopoly in the power structure in the state since its inception in 1956 until 1983 when NTR-led TDP won the 1983 Assembly elections. The sudden death of NTR followed by the split in TDP into TDPN and TDPLP significantly increased the opportunities for the Indian National Congress (I). The party's strategy to retain power at the national level relied on securing a considerable proportion of seats from the state. Congress sustained a reliable support in the state, in the form of one-third voters being its supporters, during the NTR-era since 1983 led to confidence buildup among its leadership of victory in the elections that the party made little effort to reconcile its internal differences. The then Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao hailed from the state and thus raised the stakes of the political future for the party in the state.

Telugu Desam Party (Naidu) Nara Chandrababu Naidu saw this election as an opportunity to cement his credibility and legitimacy as the political successor to NTR. It also marked the first time Naidu leading his party into an election and had high stakes for the party's future. The Election Commission of India acknowledged his faction as the authentic Telugu Desam Party and assigned the bicycle symbol that the original TDP used. The left parties – Communist Party of India (CPI) and Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPIM) – which were allies with TDP since 1984, allied with TDPN.

Telugu Desam Party (Lakshmi Parvathi) Following NTR's death on 18 January 1996, the TDP (NTR) fell into the hands of his second-wife, Lakshmi Parvathi. The party was renamed Telugu Desam Party (Lakshmi Parvathi) (TDPLP). Janata Dal, a member of the National Front coalition, supported her campaign largely as a sign of commemorating NTR, who headed the coalition.

Others Other political parties had no significant extent in the state. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) were restricted to the twin cities of Hyderabad–Secunderabad. The BJP, despite contesting in 40 constituencies in the 1991 general elections, was able to win only in Secunderabad. However, it received a considerable amount of vote share in the state, particularly in the Telangana region. The Janata Dal was deteriorated of its support base.

Candidates Caste formed one of the fundamental criteria in the selection of the candidates. Out of 42 seats, 34 are in the general category with the rest being reserved. The Congress nominated 12 candidates, in the general category, belonging to the Reddys. The TDPLP nominated 12 Kammas and 10 Reddys and was thus perceived as an upper caste party. The TDPN, apart from nominating several Reddys and Kammas, followed the NTR's strategy of enticing the Other Backward Class (OBC), who accounted for 44 percent in the state's population, and nominated 9 OBC candidates.

The Congress and the TDP considered caste considerations in nominations while the TDPLP chose to nominate the wealthy and influential candidates of the forward castes in constituencies where they are not dominant, even though the OBCs were considered to play a key role in the battle between the two TDP factions. Scholars argue that the TDPLP lacked any political strategy and sought candidates who held more sway in their respective constituencies.

List of Candidates ConstituencyINCTDP+NTR-TDP(LP)BJP # Name Party Candidate Party Candidate Party Candidate Party Candidate1SrikakulamKanithi ViswanathamKinjarapu Yerran NaiduMandamuri Jaya Krishna Krishna Chandra Rao Namballa2Parvathipuram (ST)Pradeep Kumar Dev VyricherlaViswasarai Narasimha RaoSatrucharla Vijaya Rama RajuChukka Mahalaxmi3BobbiliBotcha SatyanarayanaKondapalli Pydithalli NaiduGadde BaburaoReddi Satarao4VisakhapatnamT. Subbarami ReddiPusapati Ananda Gajapati RajuM. Venkata RaoAlwardas Sunkari5Bhadrachalam (ST)Kamala Kumari KarredulaSode RamaiahSetty LaxmanuduKurusa Bojjaiah6AnakapalliKonathala RamakrishnaChintakayala Ayyanna PatruduMalla SambasivaraoGottumukkala Srihariraju7KakinadaThota Subba RaoThota Gopala KrishnaChikkala RamachandraraoB. S. R. Krishna8RajahmundryChitturi RavindraChundru Srihari RaoGorantla Butchaiah ChowdaryKantipudi Sarvarayudu9Amalapuram (SC)K. S. R. MurthyG. M. C. BalayogiPalli Babu MohanAyyaji Vema Manepalli10NarasapurKanumuri Bapi RajuKothapalli SubbarayuduKalidindi Krishnam Raju (Suchitra)Venkata Satyanarayana Paka11EluruMaganti Venkateswara RaoBolla Buli RamaiahPentapati PullaraoDid not contest12MachilipatnamKolusu Peda ReddaiahKaikala SatyanarayanaBoppana Gangadhara ChowdaryR. S. K. Nageswara Rao13VijayawadaP. UpendraVadde Sobhanadreeswara RaoDevineni NehruM. D. Rama Rao14TenaliSingam BasavapunaiahSarada TadiparthiAmbati BrahmanaiahRaghunadh Babu Yedlapati15GunturRayapati Sambasiva RaoS. M. Laljan BashaMakineni Peda RathaiahHanumantha Rao Muddana16BapatlaVijaya Prad AryaUmmareddy VenkateswarluLaavu RathaiahVemula Mohana Rao17NarasaraopetK. V. Krishna ReddySaidaiah KotaK. Peda Peri ReddySrihari Rao Muvvala18OngoleMagunta ParvathammaMekapati Rajamohan ReddyGutta Venkata SubbaiahA. Samuel George19Nellore (SC)Panabaka LakshmiTummallagunta Prapancha Bhanu RajuPasam Sunil KumarGaddam Lakshmi Narayana20Tirupathi (SC)Nelavala SubrahmanyamGali RajasreeM. MurugaiahKadiveti Pattabhi21ChittoorD. K. Adikesavulu NaiduN. Ramakrishna ReddyGali Muddu Krishnama NaiduA. Surendra Babu22RajampetAnnayyagari Sai PrathapPothuraju PrathapSunku BalaramSyed Hussain Shakeel23CuddapahY. S. Rajasekhara ReddyKandula Raja Mohana ReddyAhmed HussainM. Lakshmi Narasaiah24HindupurS. GangadharS. Ramachandra ReddyG. NagireddyG. N. Seshagiri Rao25AnantapurAnantha Venkatarami ReddyR. RangappaV. Prabhakar ChowdaryVeluri Kesava Chowdari26KurnoolKotla Vijaya Bhaskara ReddyS. V. Subba ReddyD. Vishnuvardhan ReddyPanchagnula Mallikharjuna Sastry27NandyalP. V. Narasimha RaoBhuma Nagi ReddyByreddy Seshasayana ReddyDid not contest28Nagarkurnool (SC)Mallu RaviM. JagannathIndiraP. Dharam Pal 29MahabubnagarMallikarjun GoudD. K. ArunaA. P. Jithender ReddyR. Ravindranath Reddy 30HyderabadP. Sudhakar ReddyT. Krishna ReddyP. Mahender ReddyM. Venkaiah Naidu31SecunderabadP. V. Rajeshwar RaoM. Ramchander Rao N. Prakash Rao Bandaru Dattatreya32Siddipet (SC)Nandi YellaiahG. Vijaya RamaraoSarve SatyanarayanaBalaram Puli33MedakMogaligundla Baga ReddyPatlolla Manik ReddyG. Laxmi Narsinga RaoAle Narendra34NizamabadAtmacharan ReddyMandava Venkateshwara RaoVemula Surender ReddyP. Hambhant Reddy 35AdilabadAllola Indrakaran ReddySamudrala Venugopal CharyGona Venkat Amshuman RaoKoripelli Narayan Reddy36Peddapalli (SC)Gaddam VenkatswamySuddala DevaiahMathangi NarsaiahDid not contest37KarimnagarJ. Chokka RaoL. RamanaGaddam Vinod ReddyEdavalli Jagga Reddy38HanamkondaKamaluddin AhmedBaswa Reddy AdaboinaChada Suresh ReddyJayapal Vonteru39WarangalSurendra ReddyAzmeera ChandulalM. A. Rawoof (Jameel)Chandupatla Janga Reddy40KhammamP. V. Rangayya NaiduTammineni VeerabhadramNageswara Rao KoneruJayachandra Reddy Reddyvari41NalgondaGangadhar TirunagaruuDharma BhikshamVenreddy Narender ReddyN. Indrasena Reddy42MiryalgudaBaddam Narsimha ReddyMallu SwarajyamGattu Madhusudhan RaoRamineni Prabhakar

Campaign

Congress' campaign The Congress party displayed clear signs of complacency. The party did not announce any new initiatives and suffered from the lack of any captivating leader. It was constantly hampered by internal divisions and the rivalry between them which at times led to suspensions of several high-ranking members. Scholars studying the election and the proceedings surrounding it argue that the party was merely anticipating to reap the benefits arising out of the conflict between the two TDP divisions – TDPLP and TDPN; they inferred that projections in India Today of winning 40 seats if the party was able to sustain its support base from the previous general election held in 1991 in the state, further fuelled its overconfidence.

Chandrababu Naidu's campaign Naidu's strategy involved thorough planning and its execution. He spared no effort to showcase his association with NTR and his policies. Rhetoric involving NTR's pictures was widely deployed as a tool to appeal to the voter-base. NTR's speeches in which he praised Naidu were cherrypicked and played throughout the campaign. One such recordings was from 1984, when NTR was re-instated as the chief minister after the coup, and lauded Naidu for his immense efforts made to reinstate him, was the most often used.

Naidu fell short of Parvathi in terms of diction and crowd-pulling capabilities. To counter this, he used the medium of satellite television networks and thus expanded his reach into the far-flung communities. He directed the MLAs of his party into active campaigning supervision in their respective constituencies. He made all efforts to portray to the public that he was maintaining the populist welfare policies that NTR put into action.

Lakshmi Parvathi's campaign Akin to NTR's political journey, she started her campaign in Tirupati aboard "Taraka Rama Chaitanya Ratham", a campaign vehicle resembling the popular "Chaitanya Ratham" used by NTR, and toured around the state. Her oratorial skills drawing huge crowds to her campaign despite a lack of charisma that NTR commanded. She portrayed the coup as an injustice to NTR and called upon the electorate to defeat the "back-stabbers" in the polls. She used the metaphor "Naraasura Samhaaram" (), referring to Nara Chandrababu Naidu. The emotional appeal of playing a voice recording of NTR, in which he refers to Naidu and the MLAs who backed him during the coup as "traitors", was often employed.

She presented herself as "anti-Naidu" but never as "anti-Congress", one of the main ideologies of NTR. This led to speculations that she would support Congress after the elections. Observing the response to her campaign and the sympathy she had gained among the populace following NTR's death, political analysts predicted her decisive victory in the elections. As time progressed, her party witnessed a significant exodus of politicians who played a major role in facilitating NTR's politics down at the local level. There were also hardly any competent leaders at the mid-level in the party.

List of elected members