All four National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidates from Andhra Pradesh were elected unopposed after the withdrawal of nominations closed on Thursday, ensuring a clean sweep for the NDA in the Rajya Sabha elections from the state.
There was no fight for the Upper House seats held by Sana Sathish Babu, Bhashyam Ramakrishna, and Vijay Chintakayala of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), and Lingamaneni Ramesh of the Jana Sena Party (JSP), according to the Returning Officer’s official declaration.
The scheduled Rajya Sabha elections on June 18 were rendered unnecessary due to the fact that no other candidates submitted candidacy and all four NDA nominees persisted in the race until the withdrawal deadline.
The retirement of YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) members Alla Ayodhya Rami Reddy, Parimal Nathwani, and Pilli Subhas Chandra Bose, as well as TDP member Sana Sathish Babu, created the vacancies in the Rajya Sabha.
The Rajya Sabha has just granted Sana Sathish Babu a second term. After Mopidevi Venkataramana, head of the YSRCP, resigned in December 2024, Sathish Babu, a former businessman turned politician and close friend of TDP national general secretary Nara Lokesh, was elected in a by-election.
Among the newly elected members is Bhashyam Ramakrishna, a well-known figure in the field of education who founded the Bhashyam educational institutions that have a strong presence in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
Ramakrishna was not nominated for the Lok Sabha by the Guntur party in the 2024 general election, despite his earlier attempts to do so.
One of the younger TDP figures who is associated with Nara Lokesh is Vijay Chintakayala, who is the son of the speaker of the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly, Chintakayala Ayyanna Patrudu.
From Anakapalli, Vijay sought a Lok Sabha ticket in 2024; he is a member of the backward classes community from north coastal Andhra Pradesh. But as part of the NDA’s seat-sharing agreement, the constituency was given to the BJP.
Under the leadership of Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan, the Jana Sena Party reached a major milestone with the election of Lingamaneni Ramesh, who became the party’s first representative in the Rajya Sabha.
Since his association with the Jana Sena Party began in 2015, Ramesh has played an important role in helping the party expand its organisational reach.
This decisive triumph further establishes the NDA’s hegemonic political dominance in Andhra Pradesh, which it achieved in the 2024 Assembly elections by a wide margin.
Among the 175 members of the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly, 135 are held by the TDP, 21 by the Jana Sena Party, and 8 by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Contrarily, the NDA enjoys a numerical edge in the Rajya Sabha elections, and the YSR Congress Party can no longer compete with its 11 MLAs.
This result confirms the NDA’s sustained domination of Andhra Pradesh politics and solidifies the alliance’s position in the Rajya Sabha.
The four NDA candidates who were elected to the Rajya Sabha without facing any opposition highlight the immense political power of the coalition in Andhra Pradesh. Jana Sena sent its first member to the Upper House, significantly increasing the NDA’s clout both in the state and at the national level, while TDP got three seats. This historic achievement was achieved by Jana Sena.
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