Amaravati, 11 June

TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu was on Tuesday elected as NDA leader in the Andhra Pradesh legislative assembly.

In a meeting of Telugu Desam Party, Janasena and BJP legislators, held in Vijayawada, the MLAs elected Naidu unanimously after Janasena chief Pawan Kalyan proposed him as the leader, who was also backed by state BJP chief D Purandeswari. Consequently, Naidu emerged as the chief ministerial candidate.

Earlier in the morning, Naidu was unanimously elected as TDP legislative party leader, TDP leader K Atchen Naidu said.

Similarly, Janasena founder Pawan Kalyan was elected as the party's floor leader in the assembly. Addressing the meeting, Naidu said, "With all your cooperation, I am swearing in tomorrow (as the CM) and I would like to thank you all for that. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is coming for the swearing-in ceremony."

Announcing that he will take charge as the CM for the fourth time, Naidu said he had asked for the Central government's cooperation for the southern state and it was 'assured'. He vowed that Amaravati would be the sole capital of Andhra Pradesh and also promised to complete the Polavaram Project.

Further, he said the port city of Visakhapatnam will be developed as the economic capital and an advanced special city. About the recent polls, the TDP supremo termed the landslide victory of the NDA as unprecedented.

"I would like to salute all the five-crore people in the state for showing their determination to save the state. All of us have campaigned on only one thing: People should win and the state should stand," he noted.

According to Naidu, he had reviewed many elections in the past, but the 2024 polls gave him the greatest satisfaction. Incidentally, the victory enabled NDA leaders from the southern state to command respect in New Delhi.

The NDA comprising TDP, BJP and Janasena won a landslide victory in the recently concluded simultaneous Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in the southern state with a brute majority of 164 Assembly and 21 Lok Sabha seats.