2012 Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly By-election

Background

Andhra Pradesh entered a turbulent era in politics starting from 2009 with the movement for a separate Telangana gathering steam and the death of former Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy in a helicopter crash. Due to differences with the ruling INC, Reddy's son, Y. S. Jaganmohan Reddy, then broke away to form the YSRCP and was joined by several MLAs. Eighteen MLAs were later disqualified, while Nellore'' seat for Tirupati had also been vacant since 2010 when Chiranjeevi, whose PRP merged with the INC, was elected to the ''Rajya Sabha''.

Campaign

Campaigning for the elections stopped on 10 June at 17:00. At that time, the Election Commission mandated non-locals to leave the constituencies going to the polls. Andhra Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer Bhanwarlal directed the police to search all hotels, lodges, guest houses, function halls and residential schools to enforce the rule. The commission also barred the distribution of voter slips by political parties, the sending of bulk SMSes and the publication or broadcast of opinion or exit polls. During the campaign the police also seized a record Rs. 400 million in cash and other valuables.

Y. Jaganmohan Reddy had been arrested and jailed by the Central Bureau of Investigation on 27 May for having "illegal assets" during the campaign process. His mother Y. S. Vijayamma and sister Sharmila accused both the INC and TDP for having targeted Y. Jaganmohan Reddy. Y. S. Vijayamma also pointed at the INC over a conspiracy in regards to her husband's death in 2009. This followed both mother and son having left the INC and resigned from their Pulivendula assembly and Kadapa ''Lok Sabha'' seat. In the ensuing by-election in 2011, both of them held on to their seats with large margins of victory.

Other campaigning during the elections was undertaken by INC MP Chiranjeevi in Nellore. YSRCP's Honorary President Y. S. Vijayamma and her daughter, Sharmila, as well as TDP President N. Chandrababu Naidu, campaigned in Tirupati. The incumbent Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy and the leader of the Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee Botsa Satyanarayana also campaigned during the last 10 days. The INC's federal ministers, Vayalar Ravi and Ghulam Nabi Azad, along with most of the Andhra Pradesh cabinet, also campaigned for the party. The BJP MP Sushma Swaraj spoke at the only electoral rally in Parkala with the promise of creating a separate Telangana; the TRS' leader K. Chandrasekhara Rao also campaigned in the constituency.

Results

The March result was announced under tight security by Bhanwarlal on 18 March. For the first time it involved the use of 3G technology to upload data to the internet more quickly, with the counting process recorded with web cameras. YSRCP won the Kovur seat after the incumbent TDP MLA resigned.

Vote counting started at 8:00 on 15 June 2012. The ''Lok Sabha'' constituency had a turnout of about 70%, while the ''Vidhan Sabha'' constituencies had an average of 80% voter turnout. Security was again tightened, with 9,000 police deployed in three layers of security at the 13 counting centres within the 12 districts. The Nellore ''Lok Sabha'' seat had 13 candidates, while the 18 ''Vidhan Sabha'' seats had a total of 242 candidates. Notably, Ongole had 23 contestants, Tirupati and Rajampet followed with 19 candidates each, while Narasannapet and Polavaram had the least competition with six candidates each.

The incumbent Mekapati Rajamohan Reddy held on to his Nellore

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