Political Party

Andhra Pradesh has a Legislative Assembly of 294 seats. The state has 60 members in the Parliament of India; 18 in the Rajya Sabha, the Upper House and 42 in the Lok Sabha, the Lower House.

Andhra Pradesh had a series of governments headed by Indian National Congress (INC) Party until 1982. Kasu Brahmananda Reddy held the record for the longest serving chief minister which was broken by N.T. Rama Rao in 1983. P.V. Narasimha Rao also served as the chief minister of the state, who later went on to become the Prime Minister of India in 1991. Among the notable chief ministers of the state are Tanguturi Prakasam, Chief Minister (CM) of Andhra State (the first CM of the present Andhra Pradesh was Neelam Sanjiva Reddy) others include Kasu Brahmananda Reddy, Marri Chenna Reddy, Jalagam Vengal Rao, Nedurumalli Janardhana Reddy, Nadendla Bhaskara Rao, Kotla Vijaya Bhaskara Reddy, N.T. Rama Rao, Nara Chandrababu Naidu and Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy.

High Court at Hyderabad, the main judicial body for the State In 1983 the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) won the State elections and N.T. Rama Rao (NTR) became the chief minister of the state for the first time introducing a formidable second political party to Andhra Pradesh's politics and thus breaking the single party monopoly on Andhra Pradesh's politics. After a few months, Nadendla Bhaskar Rao usurped power when NTR was away in the United States for medical treatment. After coming back, NTR successfully convinced the then State Governor to dissolve the Assembly and call for a fresh election. TDP won the elections with a large majority and NTR became Chief Minister of the State for the second time. His government policies included investment in education, rural development and in holding corrupt government officials.

In 1989 group elections ended the 7-year rule of NTR with INC party returning to power with Dr. Marri Chenna Reddy at the helm of affairs. He was replaced by N. Janardhan Reddy who was in turn replaced by Kotla Vijaya Bhasker Reddy.

In 1994, Andhra Pradesh gave a mandate to TDP again and saw NTR becoming the chief minister again. NTR died of a heart attack before the next elections.

In 1995, N Chandrababu Naidu (TDP), became the chief minister. He won a second term in 1999 before he was defeated by the INC-led coalition in the May 2004 polls.

Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy of INC, became Chief Minister of state after May 2004. Rajasekhara Reddy fought the 2004 Assembly elections in an alliance with the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), which was formed by Mr K. Chandrasekhar Rao whose aim is to form a separate state.