ABSTRACT

The anti-incumbency factor across the country in general and strategy of the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh (AP) with electoral motivation in particular reduced the performance of Congress party to zero in Andhra and Rayalaseema. The last election in AP set aside the traditional dominant elite Reddy caste, while clearing the route for the regional dominant castes such as Velamas in Telangana and Kammas in AP, emerging through the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) respectively. From the beginning of the new millennium, the new political parties that came into existence questioned two-party rule in the form of a separate state by the TRS in 2001, governance reforms by Loksatta in 2006 and social justice by Praja Rajyam Party in 2008. The analysis of the party-wise percentage of votes indicates that the electoral mobilization skill of the TDP resulted in the effective shifting of vote banks from the Congress to TDP.