Andhra Pradesh Assembly Election Results 2019 LIVE: Jaganmohan Reddy's YSRCP Ahead as First Leads Come in After Counting Begins

YSRCP is also leading in Guntur Lok Sabha constituency, as per the inital trends. Guntur is now represented by Galla Jayadev of the TDP who is among India’s richest MP’s. Also of interest is that the Mangalagiri assembly is a part of Guntur constituency and Nara Lokesh, TDP leader and son of Chandrababu Naidu is in contest.

According to initial trends, YSRCP is leading on 9 Assembly seats and TDP is leading on 2. Apart from this, YSRCP also leads in Kadapa parliamentary constituency. This parliamentary constituency is a YSR family stronghold and is currently represented by YS Avinash Reddy, the cousin of Jagan Mohan Reddy. It also gains importance as Jagan Reddy is contesting from the Pulivendla assembly constituency which is a part of Kadapa parliamentary constituency. YS Rajashekar Reddy won from Kadapa parliament four times, his brother YS Vivekananda Reddy won twice from the same seat, and YS Jagan had won twice, including the bypoll.

YSRCP Leads; Prashant Kishor Reaches Jagan | As per current trends, Jaganmohan Reddy's YSRCP is leading on 4 assembly seats in postal votes as against Chandrababu Naidu's TDP, which is leading on one seat. Meanwhile, Prashant Kishor reaches YSR Congress office. Security has been beefed up at the party headquarters. 

Election results 2019: A holiday has been declared in Andhra Pradesh today as counting is underway for both the Lok Sabha and State Assembly elections. Readers please note, that postal ballot counting in most of the constituencies is now over and EVM counting is now underway. 

Campaign in Andhra Personal, Vitriolic | Campaigning in Andhra Pradesh often took bitter turns, and was full of shrill rheotoric and moments of frayed nerves. For instance, Facing the combined might of YSR Congress chief Jagan Mohan Reddy, K Chandrasekhar Rao and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu said at a rally he could be arrested anytime.Recently, he called Modi a “dreaded terrorist who is murdering democracy”.

Polling for all 25 Lok Sabha and 175 Assembly seats was held simultaneously. For the 175 Assembly seats, 2,118 candidates and for the 25 Lok Sabha seats 319 contestants are in the fray. This is the first general election in the state after the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, and formation of Telangana, in June 2014.

Now that counting has begun, all arrangements have been made in Vizianagaram, another key constituency where theTelugu Desam and YSRCP fought bitterly to win nine Assembly seats and one Parliament seat. Although many other parties are in the fray, the fight is confined to two parties. Former Union Minister and sitting MP P. Ashok Gajapathi Raju is testing fortunes against YSRCP’s Bellana Chandrasekhar. TDP won six Assembly seats and YSRCP could get three seats in 2014 elections.

Counting Begins | Counting begins (insert drumroll) for national and assembly polls in Andhra Pradesh, where Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu is seeking re-election against a strong challenge from his rival, YSR Congress chief Jaganmohan Reddy.  Voting for the 175 assembly and 25 Lok Sabha seats in Andhra Pradesh was held on April 11. This is the first election in the state after it was bifurcated in 2014 and Telangana was carved out.

Kadapa | This parliamentary constituency is a YSR family stronghold and is currently represented by YS Avinash Reddy, the cousin of Jagan Mohan Reddy. It also gains importance as Jagan Reddy is contesting from the Pulivendla assembly constituency which is a part of Kadapa parliamentary constituency. YS Rajashekar Reddy won from Kadapa parliament four times, his brother YS Vivekananda Reddy won twice from the same seat, and YS Jagan had won twice, including the bypoll.

 Vishakapatnam |  Actor Pawan Kalyan is contesting from Gajuwaka, an assembly segment in this constituency. Moreover, ex-IPS officer V V Lakshminarayana contesting on behalf of Pawan Kalyan’s Jana Sena Party. Lakshminarayana, the former joint director of the CBI, was a key figure in investigating YSRCP chief Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy’s disproportionate assets and has an image of fighting corruption.

Vijayawada |  This constituency is a leading urban centre located near the new capital Amaravati and is considered to be the nerve centre of politics. Vijayawada has an interesting contest with Potluri Vara Prasad, a serial entrepreneur and filmmaker contesting on the YSR Congress ticket. He is pitted against Kesineni Srinivas of TDP a local entrepreneur who won the seat by a decent margin in 2014.Vijayawada has had leading names representing it over the years, starting with Harindranath Chattopadhyay in 1952.

Below here, party workers and supporters are seen gathered outside Jaganmohan Reddy's residence in Vijaywada ahead of counting. 

Chittoor | The constituency is now represented by Naramalli Siva Prasad, a minor actor and politician who shot to fame in the national media by his constant and unique protests against the union government; first for bifurcation of the state of Andhra Pradesh and secondly for denying the special category status to the state. He dressed himself up as Ravana, Rama, Hanuman, Gandhi, Shivaji, Shiva and MGR. Chittoor also has Chandrababu’s Kuppam constituency and he normally wins with a handsome margin helping the MP candidate coast through.

With just half an hour left to counting, lets have a look at the key constituencies of Andhra Pradesh. 

Guntur | The core capital region of Amaravati falls within this constituency and Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu’s capital area development. Here, Naidu’s inclusivity quotient will be put to test. Guntur is now represented by Galla Jayadev of the TDP who is among India’s richest MP’s. Also of interest is that the Mangalagiri assembly is a part of Guntur constituency and Nara Lokesh, TDP leader and son of Chandrababu Naidu is in contest. Reacting to the ECIs decision of India turning down a demand to count VVPAT slips ahead of the EVMs during the counting process on Thursday., TDP general secretary Nara Lokesh tweeted, "A genuine and fair demand for transparency is chucked out the window without a reason. A dark day for Indian democracy!"

While a majority of the exit polls predicted victory for BJP-led NDA at the Centre, they were divided on the likely outcome in the Andhra Pradesh Assembly elections which were held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha polls. The exit polls made mixed projections as to which party will form the next government in the state. While some predicted that the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) will storm to power, others said the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) will retain power. They painted a hazy picture of Andhra Pradesh Assembly, elections for which were held along with Lok Sabha seats on April 11. Some exit polls gave the YSRCP 111-135 seats in 175-member Assembly, other predicted that the TDP will win 90-111 seats. They predicted 1-5 seats for actor Pawan Kalyan's Jana Sena, which made its electoral debut.

Less Than Half an Hour to Counting | Who will win the "battle of ballots" in Andhra Pradesh?  Few more hours and it will be clear that who is going to form the next Lok Sabha. Along with the Lok Sabha elections 2019, four states — Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim also voted to choose their next assemblies. The verdict will be out today. The fight for the 175 assembly seats in Andhra Pradesh was between three major political titans — former chief minister Chandrababu Naidu of Telugu Desam Party (TDP), YS Jaganmohan Reddy of the Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress (YSRC) and Pawan Kalyan of Jana Sena

The TDP chief, who has been busy meeting the Gandhis and key regional leaders in Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, has said that he is even willing to include his arch rival K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR)-led Telangana Rashtra Samithi  to join a grand alliance against the BJP. KCR, the chief minister of India's youngest state Telangana, is eyeing a key role in Delhi and  has been reportedly trying to pull together a non-BJP, non-Congress front to form government.

Rahul Gandhi - Naidu Bonhomie | Its a high stakes battle for Chandrababu Naidu as he seeks to build a national profile, taking the lead in a non-NDA federal front, for which Naidu has been playing up this Centre vs him narrative. After meeting Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Saturday, 18 May, to discuss firming up the anti-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alliance, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and Telugu Desam Party chief Chandrababu Naidu met with Gandhi as well as with NCP president Sharad Pawar, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav and BSP leader Mayawati.  On Saturday, Gandhi and Naidu reportedly discussed the impending need to bring together all parties that are against the BJP after the Lok Sabha election results are declared on 23 May. Quoting sources, news agency PTI reported that Naidu told Gandhi to have a strategy ready in case the BJP falls short of numbers, and still stakes claim to form government.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and YSRCP chief Jaganmohan Reddy face a do-or-die battle against each other with the political careers of both leaders at stake in the assembly and Lok Sabha elections in the state. The elections results will start coming in less than an hour... *Heavy Breathing* 

Keep following this space for News18's detailed coverage of the election results, delivered minute-by-minute. 

On November 6, 2017, Jagan had embarked on a Praja Sankalpa Yatra, from YSR’s native village Idupalapaya in YSR Kadapa district. Over the next 14 months, he covered all the 13 districts of Andhra by foot, walking 3,648 km. The march has generated a lot of goodwill for the YSRCP chief, just like the late YSR’s 1,400-km padayatra in 2004 that had swept the Congress to power.

Jagan's Answer to Naidu: 'Navaratnalu' | To counter this, Jagan, whose YSRCP is believed to be stronger in rural areas, announced ‘Navaratnalu’ or nine welfare gems in his manifesto. These include assistance of Rs 50,000 per annum to all farmers; fee reimbursement for all students from Class 1 to graduation; free medical treatment above Rs 1,000 for eligible beneficiaries; ban on alcohol; Rs 15,000 to women to encourage them to send children to school; waivers of all loans taken by women from cooperative societies and interest-free loans of Rs 50,000 to each; Rs 75,000 over four years to all women over 45 years of BC, SC, ST communities; construction of 25 lakh houses over five years; reduction of pension age from 65 to 60; Rs 2,000 per month pension to the poor elderly and Rs 3,000 for the disabled; and completion of Polavaram on a war footing.

This February, the government started a Pasupu Kumkuma scheme under which Rs 10,000 and a smart phone are given to women Self-Help Group members. Nearly 93 lakh have received the first cheque of Rs 3,000. Another much discussed scheme is Annadata Sukhibhava, announced last month, assuring Rs 10,000 per annum to every farmer.

One of the schemes the TDP expects to be a gamechanger is 2BHK housing. Under it, the Naidu government allotted houses to beneficiaries or, if the beneficiaries owned land, gave money for building a house. With beneficiaries required to bear a portion of the cost, many are opting for bigger flats by taking bank loans. Apart from this, the elderly in the state have been receiving pension of Rs 2,00 per month since February 2018. Another hit are separate corporations for Kapu, Backward Classes, SCs, STs, and Brahmins, which give subsidised loans.

Naidu, Sops, Welfare and More | After the strong anti-incumbency pushed TDP to the wall, Naidu’s slew of welfare schemes and sops announced in the last few months have revived his fighting chance. However, he faces tough competition from Reddy, who has been laying groundwork for more than three years. Reddy has also been citing the tenure of his father, YSR Reddy, and his schemes such as Re 1 per kg rice, Indiramma housing, fee reimbursement for students till graduation, and the Arogyasree health scheme, that are still remembered fondly.

Elections to 175-member state Assembly and 25 Lok Sabha seats were held in a single phase on April 11.About 80 per cent of 3.93 crore voters had cast their votes, deciding the fortunes of 319 candidates for Lok Sabha seats and 2,118 candidates for Assembly seats.Chief Minister and TDP president N. Chandrababu Naidu, YSRCP leader YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, Jana Sena president and actor Pawan Kalyan, Naidu's son Nara Lokesh, brother-in-law and actor N. Balakrishna were among the prominent candidates in Assembly polls. The TDP is confident of retaining power while YSRCP is equally sure of wresting it. Mixed predictions by the exit polls have added to the political heat in the state.

Counting Procedure in Andhra Pradesh | As many as 200 election observers have been sent to the state for the counting day. The entire counting process would also be video-graphed. The Election Commission has asked all counting agents to reach their centres before 7am on Thursday. No electronic devices, including mobile phones, will be allowed inside the centres.  Only election observers will be allowed to carry on their cell phones. Postal votes will be counted first, followed by service votes. Then, the regular counting will begin. The actual counting of votes polled in electronic voting machine (EVM)s will start at 8.30am. Votes for Lok Sabha and Assembly elections will be counted separately. Electronic boards displaying trends and results have also been set up at all the centres.  Only after the results are uploaded in the EC’s Suvidha website, that outcome would be considered official.  The Result of Narasapuram Assembly constituency is expected to come fast, while voters of the Rampachodavaram Assembly seat may get to know the outcome last. 

Security has been tightened Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu and Opposition leader YS Jagan Mohan Reddy.  Police officers are expecting all the candidates and senior leaders of the Naidu-led Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and Reddy’s YSR Congress (YSRC) to come down to their leaders’ residences in Amaravati when counting would be underway. Heightened security is also in place for other senior political leaders and counting centres with the deployment of 15 companies of paramilitary forces and local police. Sections 144, 30 have been imposed across all the counting centres in the state. 

Modi Vs Rahul: Historic Day in Indian Democracy | While this News18 Liveblog will be focussing on the state of assembly election in Andhra Pradesh, we would like to remind our readers that today is also the day when the the fate of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s bid for a second term will be decided as the vote counting for Lok Sabha elections 2019 starts at 8am. At the national level, it was a battle between the NDA, led by the BJP’s Modi, and the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), led by Congress president Rahul Gandhi. The BJP also faced a stiff challenge from the Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav’s SP-BSP Gathbandhan in Uttar Pradesh and Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress in West Bengal. The election has been dubbed as a referendum on Modi with several opposition parties uniting to form an anti-BJP bloc, although they failed to seal a formal alliance. Congress, Chandrababu Naidu’s TDP, Sharad Pawar’s NCP, Arvind Kejriwal’s AAP, MK Stalin’s DMK, Deve Gowda’s JD(S) Left Parties, Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party, TMC, RJD, among others have also come together to protest against alleged EVM tampering. 

Counting to Begin Amid Tight Security | The stage is set for counting of votes in Andhra Pradesh Assembly and Lok Sabha elections on Thursday amid tight security arrangements. With both Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and YSR Congress Party expressing apprehension that other might resort to violence, elaborate security arrangements were made at the counting centres across the state. Election Commission of India observer (law and order) KK Sharma along with Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Gopala Krishna Dwivedi reviewed the security arrangements on Wednesday. The counting process will begin at 8am in all the 55 counting centres across 13 districts in the state. 

As for the BJP, which has decided to go solo this time, is not likely to make much headway in Andhra. The BJP got 7.2 per cent vote share in 2014 and won four Assembly and two Lok Sabha seats, fighting in alliance with the TDP. The party started its full-fledged campaign on March 29 from Kurnool, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressing a meeting. However, sources said both YSRCP has been in touch with Opposition parties since the exit poll results. The BJP has been banking on the two parties to boost NDA numbers, particularly if the mandate is not as decisive as many of the exit polls have forecast. Exit polls have shown major gains for YSRCP in Andhra Pradesh in both Assembly and Lok Sabha elections.

Where do the National Parties Stand | The Congress has negligible presence in Andhra. Blamed for pushing through the split leading to the creation of Telangana, the party still carries the weight of it. In 2014, the Congress had not won a single seat in either the Lok Sabha or Assembly polls in Andhra and got a mere 2.7 per cent of the votes. However, Congress’ lack of efforts in making inroads in the state could be attributed to its understanding at the national level with TDP.