Andhra Pradesh Politics: NDA government has been formed in Andhra Pradesh as well. Telugu Desam Party (TDP) supremo Chandrababu Naidu took oath as the 24th Chief Minister of the state on Wednesday. He will take charge of the state for the fourth time. With this, he has made a record of becoming the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh for the maximum number of times.
Apart from Naidu, Janasena chief and actor Pawan Kalyan took oath as deputy CM. He touched Naidu’s feet after taking oath. Naidu’s son Nara Lokesh took oath at number three. The new government will have 25 members including CM and deputy CM. It includes 20 ministers from TDP, 3 from Janasena and 1 from BJP. One post has been kept vacant.
Governor Abdul Nazir administered the oath to the CM and ministers at Kesarpalli IT Park in Vijayawada. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Amit Shah, NDA ministers and Chief Ministers of other states also attended the program. After the oath, Prime Minister Modi hugged Naidu and congratulated him.
Naidu’s son also gets a place in the cabinet
Naidu’s cabinet includes his son and TDP general secretary Nara Lokesh, state president K. Atchannaidu and Janasena Party’s political affairs committee chairman Nadendla Manohar. There are 17 new faces among the TDP ministers. The remaining 3 have been ministers before.
The three ministers from the Janasena Party are Pawan Kalyan, Nadendla Manohar and Kandula Durgesh. Satya Kumar Yadav is the only BJP MLA who will take oath as a minister. There are three women in the cabinet. Senior leader N Mohammed Farooq is the only Muslim face.
The list of ministers includes 8 from backward class, 3 from scheduled caste and 1 from scheduled tribe. Naidu has included 4 ministers each from Kamma and Kapu communities. 3 from Reddy community and 1 from Vaishya community have also got place in the cabinet. Naidu himself belongs to Kamma community. Pawan Kalyan comes from Kapu community.
NDA won 164 out of 175 seats in the assembly
The results of the assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh were declared on June 4 along with the Lok Sabha elections. TDP, BJP and Jana Sena Party (JSP) had contested the elections together in the state. Under the seat sharing in the alliance, out of the 175 assembly seats, TDP had fielded its candidates on 144 seats, Jana Sena Party on 21 seats and BJP on 10 seats.
In this, Naidu’s TDP got 135 seats, Pawan Kalyan’s Janasena got 21 seats and BJP got 8 seats, i.e. a total of 164 seats. Jagan Mohan Reddy’s YSRCP got only 11 seats. Congress could not even open its account in the state.
Out of the 25 Lok Sabha seats in the state, NDA has won 21 seats. Of these, TDP has won 16, BJP 3 and Janasena Party 2 seats. YSRCP has got 4 seats.
After winning the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections, Naidu celebrated by cutting a cake with his family. In the picture are Naidu with his wife Nara Bhuvaneshwari, son Nara Lokesh, daughter-in-law Nara Brahmani.
TDP and BJP put behind old enmity for elections
TDP joined NDA in 1996. The party was part of the coalition in Vajpayee’s government in 1998 and Narendra Modi’s government in 2014. TDP-BJP fought the 2014 Lok Sabha and Assembly elections together.
TDP left NDA in 2018 after Modi government refused to grant special status to Andhra Pradesh. After this, PM Modi and Naidu made a lot of statements against each other during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Modi had called Naidu U-turn Babu. Modi said in a rally- Chandrababu Naidu repeatedly says that he is much senior to me. He is senior in changing parties. He is senior in stabbing his father-in-law in the back.
Modi had called Naidu ‘Lokesh’s father’. Naidu retorted to this saying- Lokesh is my son. You have no son. You have no family. You left your wife.
Home Minister Amit Shah had announced in February 2019 that the doors of NDA were closed for Naidu forever. Five years later, Naidu and Shah met in June 2023. Then in March 2024, both the parties reunited.
