BJP's quiet rise in Andhra Pradesh: 3 seats, 11% votes take saffron party ahead of Congress

Lok Sabha Election Results 2024: Uttar Pradesh Lok Sabha result was a shocker for the BJP, West Bengal was disheartening, and Maharashtra was worse than expected - the saffron party lost over 50 Lok Sabha seats from these three states in 2024 compared to 2019. But the addition of seats from unexpected territories saved the day for the saffron party, without which there would be no NDA 3.0, let alone Modi 3.0.

Odisha tops the list of the three states that ensured NDA 3.0. The state, ruled by the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) for a record 24 years, gave 20 of 21 Lok Sabha seats to the BJP with over 45% votes - a gain of 12 seats from 2019. 

Telangana was another state where the BJP added 4 more seats with vote share expanding to 35% from 19.65% in 2019. This time, the saffron party secured 8 seats, while 8 went to the ruling Congress and one to AIMIM.    

However, what went unnoticed was the number of seats the BJP gained in Andhra Pradesh - the southern citadel where the saffron party had less than 1% votes and zero seats till 2019. The BJP won three seats - Anakapalle, Rajahmundry, and Narsapuram - all with a margin of over 2 lakh votes. 

The BJP, which smartly stitched an alliance with Chandrababu Naidu's TDP and Pawan Kalyan's Jana Sena Party, secured 3 Lok Sabha seats, with 11.28% votes. The NDA won 21 of 25 seats in Andhra, pushing the alliance above the majority mark in the 543-member House. 

While TDP bagged the highest 16, followed by Jagan Mohan Reddy's YSRP 4, and Jana Sena 2, Congress could not open its account and secured just 2.66% votes. 

Andhra is the second southern state after Tamil Nadu where the BJP's vote share has gone ahead of the Congress. 

In Telangana, the saffron party and grand old party have won 8 seats each, but BJP got 35% votes, while Congress secured 40%. 

In Karnataka, the first state in southern where lotus bloomed a long ago, the saffron party maintains its lead and has won 17 of 28 seats with over 46% votes. The Congress got slightly less than 45.43% votes.