Andhra: YSR Congress Comfortably Placed To Form Govt, Big Setback For Naidu

The battle of 175 assembly seats in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh has thrown up a clear winner in the early hours of counting.

The ruling Telugu Desam Party (TDP) is on the way out leading only in 20 seats. The YS Jaganmohan Reddy led YSR Congress party crossed the 100 seat mark in the early leads and if the current trends hold the party would get a comfortable majority.

The TDP had until recently been an ally of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as part of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). Naidu however took his party out of NDA citing the central government's refusal to grant the state of Andhra special category status in view of the bifurcation of the state some years ago.