The United Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly election of 2009 took place in April 2009, concurrently with the 2009 Indian general election. The elections were held in the state in the first phase (2009-04-16) and the second phase (2009-04-23). The results were declared on 2009-05-16. The incumbent

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British Em ...

retained power in the

United Andhra Pradesh United may refer to: Places * United, Pennsylvania, an unincorporated community * United, West Virginia, an unincorporated community Arts and entertainment Films * United (2003 film), ''United'' (2003 film), a Norwegian film * United (2011 film) ...

State Assembly lower house, though with a reduced majority. The Congress Legislature party re-elected incumbent

Chief minister A chief minister is an elected or appointed head of government of – in most instances – a sub-national entity, for instance an administrative subdivision or federal constituent entity. Examples include a state (and sometimes a union terri ...

Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy Yeduguri Sandinti Rajasekhara Reddy (8 July 1949 – 2 September 2009), popularly known as YSR, was the 14th chief minister of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, serving from 2004 to 2009. Reddy was elected to the 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12t ...

as its leader thus re-nominating him to the post.

Previous Assembly

In the 2004 Andhra Pradesh Assembly election, Congress had swept the state, winning 185 of the 294 seats in the Assembly. The Congress' pre-poll alliance partners Left Front and Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) also did well, winning 15 and 26 seats respectively, taking the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) tally to 226. As the leader of the Congress Legislature Party, Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy was invited to form the Government by

Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

Surjit Singh Barnala Surjit Singh Barnala (21 October 1925 – 14 January 2017) was an Indian politician who served as the chief minister of Punjab state from 1985 to 1987. Following that he served as the governor of Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand, Andhra Pradesh , l ...

. As expected, the Government lasted the full term of 5 years and the tenure of the Legislative Assembly was due to expire on 30 May 2009. The

Election Commission of India The Election Commission of India (ECI) is a constitutional body. It was established by the Constitution of India to conduct and regulate elections in the country. Article 324 of the Constitution provides that the power of superintendence, di ...

(ECI) decided to hold the Assembly elections along with the

general election A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...

. The election in each Assembly constituency (AC) was held in the same phase as the election to the corresponding Parliamentary constituency that the AC falls under.

Background

After the 2008 Lok Sabha vote of confidence, the Left Front withdrew support to the Congress in the state as well.

Telugu Desam Party The Telugu Desam Party (; TDP) is an Indian regional political party operating in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana at the state and central level. Since its founding by N. T. Rama Rao (often referred to as NTR) on 29 March 1982, the party has foc ...

(TDP) and TRS then joined the Left as part of the national Third Front. In Andhra Pradesh, this alliance called themselves the "Grand Alliance" against what they called the "corrupt Congress" and "communal BJP". However, after the elections in Andhra Pradesh were completed, but before the counting of votes, TRS switched allegiance to the

NDA NDA may stand for: Military * National Defence Academy (India), a military academy in India * National Defence Act, legislation for organizing and funding Canada's military * National Defense Academy of Japan, a military academy in Japan * Nig ...

Schedule

Results

By constituency

Government formation

Despite losing their alliance partner after voting and fighting

anti-incumbency Anti-incumbency is sentiment in favor of voting out incumbent politicians. It is sometimes referred to as a "throw the bums out" sentiment. Periods of anti-incumbent sentiment are typically characterized by wave elections. This sentiment can also le ...

in the state, Congress managed to get the majority in the 294-member Assembly with 157 seats. Analysis of the results showed that the split of the anti-Congress votes between the Grand Alliance and actor-turned-politician

Chiranjeevi Chiranjeevi (born Konidela Sivasankara Varaprasad; 22 August 1955) is an Indian actor, film producer and former politician, who predominantly works in Telugu cinema. Chiranjeevi starred in over 150 feature films in Telugu language, Telugu, as ...

's newly formed

Praja Rajyam Party The Praja Rajyam Party was a political party in India. Formation The first public meeting was held by Chiranjeevi on 26 August 2008, at Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh. He addressed a gathering of about a million people and announced the party name ...

(PRP) helped increase the Congress overall seat count. The incumbent

Chief Minister A chief minister is an elected or appointed head of government of – in most instances – a sub-national entity, for instance an administrative subdivision or federal constituent entity. Examples include a state (and sometimes a union terri ...

was sworn in for a second term on 20 May 2009. His council of 35 ministers were sworn in by

N. D. Tiwari Narayan Datt Tiwari (18 October 1925 – 18 October 2018) was an Indian politician who served as the 9th Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh and 3rd Chief Minister of Uttarakhand from 2002 to 2007. He was first Indian Chief Minister who served for ...

a few days later on 25 May 2009.

References

{{Indian elections State Assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh 2000s in Andhra Pradesh 2009 State Assembly elections in India