[1] This was the first election contested by the TDP since its leader Chandrababu Naidu ousted the party founder N. T. Rama Rao in a palace coup in August 1995 and the latter's untimely death a few months later.
In August 1995, Nara Chandrababu Naidu overthrew the Government of Andhra Pradesh formed by the actor-turned-politician N. T. Rama Rao (NTR) in a coup d'état.
[6] The Indian National Congress maintained a monopoly in the power structure in the state since its inception in 1956 until 1983 when NTR-led TDP won the 1983 Assembly elections.
[7] The sudden death of NTR followed by the split in TDP into TDPN and TDPLP significantly increased the opportunities for the Indian National Congress (I).
The party's strategy to retain power at the national level relied on securing a considerable proportion of seats from the state.
[8] Nara Chandrababu Naidu saw this election as an opportunity to cement his credibility and legitimacy as the political successor to NTR.
The Election Commission of India acknowledged his faction as the authentic Telugu Desam Party and assigned the bicycle symbol that the original TDP used.
[6] The Congress and the TDP considered caste considerations in nominations while the TDPLP chose to nominate the wealthy and influential candidates of the forward castes in constituencies where they are not dominant, even though the OBCs were considered to play a key role in the battle between the two TDP factions.
Scholars argue that the TDPLP lacked any political strategy and sought candidates who held more sway in their respective constituencies.
Scholars studying the election and the proceedings surrounding it argue that the party was merely anticipating to reap the benefits arising out of the conflict between the two TDP divisions – TDPLP and TDPN;[6] they inferred that projections in India Today of winning 40 seats if the party was able to sustain its support base from the previous general election held in 1991 in the state,[10] further fuelled its overconfidence.
One such recordings was from 1984, when NTR was re-instated as the chief minister after the coup, and lauded Naidu for his immense efforts made to reinstate him, was the most often used.
He made all efforts to portray to the public that he was maintaining the populist welfare policies that NTR put into action.
The emotional appeal of playing a voice recording of NTR, in which he refers to Naidu and the MLAs who backed him during the coup as "traitors", was often employed.
Observing the response to her campaign and the sympathy she had gained among the populace following NTR's death, political analysts predicted her decisive victory in the elections.
As time progressed, her party witnessed a significant exodus of politicians who played a major role in facilitating NTR's politics down at the local level.
Naidu's decision to sustain prohibition and subsidised rice scheme, both of which being NTR's populist welfare policies, paid off leading him to the victory over the Parvathi's faction in the election.