As Telangana goes to election today (December 7), a constituency which is to watch out for is Andole. This constituency, reserved for Scheduled Caste (SC) candidates, is Telangana's bellwether seat.
Andole was a part of undivided Andhra Pradesh. It has returned a candidate whose party has formed government 12 out of 14 times that Andhra Pradesh and later Telangana have gone to polls since 1957.
The two exceptions - when the party winning Andole did not form government in Andhra Pradesh - took place in 1957 and subsequently in 1983.
In 1957- when the first Andhra Pradesh assembly election was held - Baswa Maniah, an independent candidate, won from Andole. However, the Congress formed the government in the newly-created state with Neelam Sanjiva Reddy of the Congress becoming its first chief minister.
Later, Neelam Sanjiva Reddy went on to become the sixth President of India on July 25, 1977. In between he also was a two-time speaker of the Lok Sabha and a Union minister.
In the second assembly election held in 1962, SL Devi of the Congress won from Andole. It was the Congress again which formed the government with Neelam Sanjiva Reddy again as the CM.
Andole was constituency for general category candidates in 1957 and 1962. However, it got reserved for SC candidates thereafter.
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