TDP holds on, with less room to spare
What happened
Telugu Desam Party, led by Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, won a second consecutive term in Andhra Pradesh.1
It won 180 of the 294 seats on offer.
That left it 32 seats clear of a majority.
Indian National Congress trailed with 91 seats.
Even so, TDP's vote share — the slice of all ballots cast that went to one party or candidate — came to 43.9% of the vote.
- 1Naidu Says TDP's BJP Ties Are 'Only for the Elections' — TDP not to join NDA, says Naidu (The Tribune, 17 September 1999, dateline Vijayawada 16 September, UNI)
The campaign
On 27 January 1999 Nandamuri Harikrishna, son of TDP founder NTR, broke from Chandrababu Naidu's Telugu Desam Party after a leadership dispute and formed the Anna Telugu Desam Party. It fielded 191 candidates in September but won no seats.2
On 11 July the Election Commission set Andhra Pradesh's assembly poll to run alongside the Lok Sabha election, together with Karnataka and Sikkim, to save election expenses.3
By 16 August the BJP and TDP ended a seat-sharing stalemate: Naidu's party allotted the BJP 8 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats and 25 of the 294 assembly seats.4
A bomb killed four people at a minister's house in Narasaraopet on 28 August, forcing the Election Commission to postpone that seat's vote; polling was finally held on 3 October, after a boycott call kept voters from two booths.5
Campaigning at Vijayawada on 16 September, Naidu ruled out TDP formally joining a BJP-led government nationally, telling reporters the alliance was 'only for the elections.'1
- 1Naidu Says TDP's BJP Ties Are 'Only for the Elections' — TDP not to join NDA, says Naidu (The Tribune, 17 September 1999, dateline Vijayawada 16 September, UNI)
- 2Nandamuri Harikrishna Splits From TDP, Forms Anna Telugu Desam Party — Anna Telugu Desam Party
- 3Election Commission Schedules AP Assembly Polls With Lok Sabha — 1999 Indian general election, Political parties hail poll announcement (The Tribune, 12 July 1999)
- 4TDP and BJP End Stalemate, Finalize Assembly Seat-Sharing Pact — BJP, TDP units oppose pact (The Tribune, 10 August 1999), TDP, BJP reach pact on seats (The Tribune, 17 August 1999, dateline Hyderabad 16 August)
- 5Bomb Blast at Minister's House Halts, Then Delays, Narasaraopet Polling — Bomb blast in AP minister's house kills 4 (Rediff On The NeT, 30 August 1999), 60 per cent voting in Narasaraopet (Rediff On The NeT, 3 October 1999), 1999 Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly election
What changed
TDP won again, but with far less room to spare than at the previous election.
Its own seat count fell from 216 to 180.
The single biggest shift ran from TDP to INC, accounting for 65 of the 139 seats that changed hands.
Turnout, the share of registered voters who actually cast a ballot, fell -2.5 pp from the previous election.
Notable numbers
The tightest race was Polavaram, Andhra Pradesh, decided by 24 votes — the margin, how far ahead the winner finished, in votes, over whoever came second.
Penukonda, Andhra Pradesh saw the widest margin of the election, 57.2% of the vote separating the top two finishers.
Chintalapudi, Andhra Pradesh recorded the highest turnout of any seat, 81.9%.
Khairatabad, Andhra Pradesh was the largest constituency by registered voters, with 5,93,194 names on its rolls.
The backdrop
NTR founded the TDP in 1982, and it came to power the next year, ending 27 years of single-party rule in the state. It won 201 of the 294 seats that election, with NTR sworn in as Chief Minister.6
TDP has now won 2 elections in a row in the state.
- 6Telugu Desam Party Founded, Ends Congress's Unbroken Rule — Telugu Desam Party