Assembly polls in AP on April 11

Amaravati/New Delhi: The Election Commission on Sunday said the Assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh will be held on April 11 along with the polls to the 25 Lok Sabha seats in the state.

The term of the Andhra Pradesh Assembly will come to an end on June 18. Counting and results of the Assembly and Lok Sabha Elections will be announced on the same day on May 23. The forthcoming election would be the first to be held after the bifurcation of the state. The state has 175 Assembly seats.

Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief and Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu has been making a pitch for a second term. Naidu, who was an ally of the BJP, walked out of the tie-up last year alleging that the Narendra Modi-led NDA government had failed to keep its promises to the state regarding granting of the special category status.

Naidu, who is also seen as a key player in the Opposition alliance on the national front, has made it clear that he would go to the elections in the state without any pre-poll deal. Although Andhra Pradesh will see a multi-cornered contest, the main opposition to the ruling TDP is YSR Congress Party, led by YS Jaganmohan Reddy.

Though the TDP has earlier voiced support for the Congress-led alliance at the national level, the two parties have chosen to contest independently in Andhra Pradesh. This is after the poll debacle in neighbouring Telangana, where Prajakutami, which comprised Congress and TDP, failed to garner much support.

In 2014 Assembly polls, the TDP won with a comfortable majority of 102 seats, while the YSRCP won 67. In Lok Sabha Elections, the TDP won 16, while the YSRCP 9.

According to the notification, the date of issue of the gazette notification is March 18. The last day of nomination for Assembly and Lok Sabha elections is March 25 and the last date of withdrawing nominations for both Assembly and Lok Sabha is March 28.