Andhra Pradesh witnesses hectic political activity as parties gear up for polls in 2024

With just a few months to go for the polls, every political party in Andhra Pradesh is busy giving final touches to their campaign and strategies.

The year 2023, being the penultimate year before the general and Assembly elections, saw hectic political activity in Andhra Pradesh. It was marked with padayatras and bus yatras by various political parties, change of guard in a few political parties, arrest of senior leaders, including former Chief Minister and TDP’s national president N. Chandrababu Naidu, A.P. CID filing cases against a number of leaders in the Opposition and the signing of the formal alliance between the JSP and the TDP to take on the might of Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy’s YSR Congress Party.

All these developments are expected to culminate into a heady political cocktail for the 2024 elections, and A.P. would be the State to be watched by the poll analysts.

With just a few months to go for the polls, every political party in the State is busy giving final touches to their campaign and strategies.

The State experienced a tense political situation, when the CID arrested former CM Nara Chandrababu Naidu on September 9, for his alleged involvement in the ₹371 crore A.P. Skill Development scam and sent him to judicial remand at the Rajahmundry Central Prison. He was arrested at Nandyala town when he was on his ‘Babu Surety — Bhavishyathuku Guarantee’ campaign trail.

It took almost two months for him to come out on a conditional bail on health grounds after hectic legal battles both at the A.P. High Court and the Supreme Court by top legal counsels from both sides, and finally, he could get a regular bail from the High Court.

The CID also made him an accused in a number of other cases such as the IRR (Inner Ring Road) alignment case of Amaravati, sand mining case and liquor case.

But the boldest political move during the period when Mr. Naidu was in jail, was taken by Jana Sena Party president Pawan Kalyan. Despite being in alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), he announced the alliance with the TDP, after meeting Mr. Naidu in jail in one of the ‘mulaqat’ episodes.