BJP activists celebrating the poll victory at the party’s State office in Vijayawada on June 4.
| Photo Credit: File photo
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has regained its foothold in Andhra Pradesh in the 2024 elections. The party’s vote share which was less than NOTA in the 2019 elections has increased significantly.
The BJP contested from 10 Assembly and six Lok Sabha constituencies and won eight Assembly and three Lok Sabha seats compared to zero in 2019. The BJP lost two more Lok Sabha constituencies with slender margins.
The landslide victory of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in Andhra Pradesh could be one of the reasons behind the increase in the BJP vote share. The other factor is the BJP’s Southern push. The BJP doubled its tally in neighbouring Telangana by bagging eight Lok Sabha constituencies.
In Andhra Pradesh, the BJP gained traction as far as Lok Sabha seats are concerned. The party won three Lok Sabha constituencies including Rajahmundry where BJP State president Daggubati Purandeswari emerged victorious. The BJP secured a vote share of 11.28% in the Lok Sabha election.
In 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP had a vote share of 7.22% which dropped to to 0.98% in 2019. In Assembly constituencies, its vote share was 4.13% in 2014 which fell to 0.84% in 2019. Then, it was a two-horse race between the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP).
The BJP was badly decimated and its vote share fell below the NOTA which accrued 1.5% votes in Lok Sabha constituencies.
Even then BJP State president Kanna Lakshminaryana lost the election from Narsaraopet Lok Sabha seat. The BJP failed to win a single Lok Sabha and Assembly seats in 2019. The saffron party bagged two Lok Sabha and four MLA seats in alliance with the TDP in 2014.
Now, the BJP’s vote share has increased to 11.28% in Lok Sabha constituencies and 2.83% in Assembly constituencies.
The party won with a margin of more than 22% in the Rajahmundry, Anakapalle, and Narsapuram Lok Sabha constituencies. It narrowly missed Tirupati Lok Sabha seat where V. Vara Prasad got 44.67% of votes while YSRCP candidate M. Gurumurthy got 45.73% votes. The margin is 1.06% which is less than NOTA (1.17%).
Former Chief Minister of undivided Andhra Pradesh Nallari Kiran Kumar Reddy lost the election from Rajampet Lok Sabha seat though he got 43.67% of votes against YSRCP candidate’s 48.38%.
The BJP was pinning hopes on the Araku Lok Sabha seat for the groundwork it did in the tribal pockets. The BJP got 36.62% of votes while the YSRCP got 40.96%. The CPI(M), whose frontal organisations are also working in the agency areas, got 10.57% of votes.
