The alliance of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and the Jana Sena Party (JSP) won the elections in Andhra Pradesh. The leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the strategies of TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu and actor-turned politician Pawan Kayan, and the overwhelming support of the Backward Classes (BCs) and Kapus contributed to this win. The alliance won 21 Lok Sabha seats and 164 Assembly seats. The Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP) of Jagan Mohan Reddy has been reduced to 11 seats in the Assembly and 4 seats in the Lok Sabha.
The social profile of the voters of the TDP allies and YSRCP is given in Table 1. The table shows that the TDP allies have got more than 60% of the vote share of the Gouds, Kammas, and Kapus; more than 50% of the vote share of Other BCs, Madigas, and Malas; and more than 30% of the vote share of the Christians, Muslims, the Reddy community, and upper castes. More than 50% of the Reddy community, Christians, upper castes, and Muslims voted for the YSRCP. More than 40% of the Malas, Other Scheduled Castes, Yadavs, and Madigas voted for the party, as did more than 30% of the other BCs, and more than 20% of the Kapus, Scheduled Tribes, and Gouds.
From the class point of view, four of the 10 of the poor, more than half of the lower middle class and middle class, and over six of every 10 of the rich voted for the TDP and its allies. In terms of age groups, the TDP alliance won more than half the votes of those below 25 and close to two-thirds of the votes of those in the 26-35 age group. More than half the voters in the older age group supported the TDP-led alliance. The TDP alliance performed better among men than women. It performed equally well in urban and rural areas.
E. Venkatesu is Professor of Political Science, University of Hyderabad
