1955 Andhra State Legislative Assembly election

11 February 1955 (1955-02-11)
196 seats in the Andhra State Legislative Assembly 99 seats needed for a majority
Majority party Minority party   Leader B. Gopala Reddy Puchalapalli Sundarayya Party INC CPI Leader's seat Atmakur Gannavaram Seats won 119 15 Popular vote 3,394,109 2,685,251 Percentage 39.35% 31.13%
Chief Minister before election Vacant (President's rule) Chief Minister Bezawada Gopala Reddy INC

Elections to the Andhra State Legislative Assembly were held on 11 February 1955. 581 candidates contested for the 167 constituencies in the Assembly. There were 29 two-member constituencies and 138 single-member constituencies.^[1] The members of the first assembly (1955–62) were allowed a seven-year term. That is to say, in 1957, elections were conducted in the newly added region of Telangana alone, and then in 1962, general elections were held for the state as a whole.^[2]

Background

On 1 October 1953, a separate Andhra State, consisting of the Telugu-speaking areas of the composite Madras State, with 167 constituencies with 190 seats in the Assembly, was formed. On 1 November 1956, Andhra State was merged with Hyderabad State under the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, to form a single state, Andhra Pradesh. The divisions of Aurangabad (Aurangabad, Bhir, Nander, Parbhani), Gulbarga (Bidar, Gulbarga, Osmanabad, Raichur) were detached from Hyderabad State while merging with Andhra State. Besides, the Siruguppa taluk, the Bellary taluk, the Hospet taluk, and a small area of the Mallapuram sub-taluk were transferred from Mysore State to Andhra Pradesh. The Aurangabad division and Osmanabad district of the Gulbarga division were transferred to Bombay State, while the remaining Gulbarga division (excluding Osmanabad district) was transferred to Mysore State.^[3] This resulted in the reorganisation of assembly constituencies in Andhra Pradesh, giving way to 85 constituencies with 105 seats in the assembly.

Results

Results by party

Party		Votes	%	Seats
	Indian National Congress	3,394,109	39.35	119
	Krishikar Lok Party	625,827	7.26	22
	Communist Party of India	2,685,251	31.13	15
	Praja Socialist Party	481,666	5.58	13
	Praja Party	240,884	2.79	5
	Bharatiya Jana Sangh	8,218	0.10	0
	Independents	1,188,887	13.78	22
Total		8,624,842	100.00	196

By-elections

On 16 July 1955, a by-election was held for the Burugupudi seat after the death of the sitting MLA and State Minister for Agriculture, N. Venkata Rama Rao. N. Venkataratnam of the Indian National Congress was elected unopposed.^[4][5][6]

In July 1955, a by-election was held for the Sarvepalli seat after the resignation of the sitting MLA Bezawada Gopala Reddy (who had won two seats in the assembly election and had to resign from one of them).^[6] The election was won by the Indian National Congress candidate V. K. Reddi, who obtained 22,835 votes (60%), while the independent S. A. Reddi got 15,218 votes (40%).^[6][7] While the Congress Party won the election by a comfortable margin, its percentage of the popular vote had decreased by 7.8%.^[6]

See also

• 1955 elections in India
• 1952 Hyderabad Legislative Assembly election
• 1957 Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly election

Notes

References

Further reading

• Sekhar Bandyopadhyay (2009). Decolonization in South Asia: Meanings of Freedom in Post-independence West Bengal, 1947–52. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-134-01824-6.
• George Mathew, ed. (1984). Shift in Indian Politics: 1983 Elections in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. Studies on Indian democracy, political parties and political process. Christian Institute for the Study of Religion and Society / Concept Publishing Company.
• Myron Weiner (2015). Party Politics in India. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-1-4008-7841-3.
• Sadhna Sharma (1995). States Politics in India. Mittal Publications. ISBN 9788170996194.