Telugu Desam's landslide debut
What happened
Telugu Desam Party won power in its first-ever election, a landslide that ended the state's long-serving government.
It won 201 of the 294 seats on offer.
That left it 53 seats clear of a majority.
Its nearest rival, the Indian National Congress, managed 60 seats.
TDP took 39.0% of the vote to the INC's 33.6%, turning just a few points in votes into an overwhelming edge in seats.
The campaign
N. T. Rama Rao founded the Telugu Desam Party on 29 March 1982. In the January 1983 election it won 201 of the state's 294 assembly seats, ending 27 years of unbroken Indian National Congress rule in Andhra Pradesh.1
Ahead of the poll, the party campaigned on promises of rice at Rs 2 per kilogram for poor households and subsidised farm electricity at a flat rate of Rs 50 per horsepower a year.2
Kotla Vijaya Bhaskara Reddy, Chief Minister since 20 September 1982, led the Congress campaign as its designated leader, and contested from and won the Yemmiganur constituency.3
The election, originally due in August, was preponed and held on 5 January for 293 of the 294 seats, with results declared on 7 January. Polling for the remaining seat was conducted separately on 27 February.4
N. T. Rama Rao himself stood from two constituencies, Gudivada and Tirupati, and won both, later vacating the Tirupati seat.5
- 1Telugu Desam Party Founded, Ends Congress's Unbroken Rule — Telugu Desam Party
- 2TDP Campaigns on Rs 2 Rice and Cheap Farm Power — 1983 Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly election
- 3Kotla Vijaya Bhaskara Reddy Leads Congress(I) Campaign as Sitting CM — 1983 Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly election (infobox), Kotla Vijaya Bhaskara Reddy
- 4Andhra Pradesh Assembly Election Preponed to January 1983 — 1983 Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly election, 1983 Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly election (infobox)
- 5NTR Contests and Wins From Two Assembly Seats — 1983 Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly election (infobox)
What changed
The party that won this election hadn't existed at all a year earlier.
It went from 0 seats to 201 in one election.
The Indian National Congress (I), which had governed the state, collapsed in the process.
The single biggest shift ran from the INC(I) to the TDP, covering 130 of the 267 seats that changed hands.
Notable numbers
The tightest race was Nagarkurnool, Andhra Pradesh, decided by a margin — how far ahead the winner finished, in votes, over whoever came second — of 52 votes.
Kovvur, Andhra Pradesh was the most one-sided contest of the year, won by 66.1% of the vote.
Turnout — the share of registered voters who actually cast a ballot — peaked at Rayachoty, Andhra Pradesh, where 80.5% of registered voters turned out.
Undi, Andhra Pradesh was the largest constituency by registered voters, with 5,69,980 names on its rolls.
Ramayampet, Andhra Pradesh drew the most candidates of the year, 18 in total.
TDP and BJP each won an assembly seat in Andhra Pradesh for the first time this election.
The backdrop
Andhra Pradesh was formed on 1 November 1956, merging Andhra State with the Telugu-speaking districts of Hyderabad State.6
The first state-wide joint Andhra Pradesh election was held in 1962.6
The INC(I) governed the state without interruption from then until TDP's win in 1983.1
- 1Telugu Desam Party Founded, Ends Congress's Unbroken Rule — Telugu Desam Party
- 6Formation of Andhra Pradesh — Andhra Pradesh (1956–2014), 1957 Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly election, 1955 Andhra State Legislative Assembly election