Ballot papers, not EVMs — and the result was a landslide. Union Coal and Mines Minister G. Kishan Reddy declared on Thursday, 5 November 2026 that the NDA alliance had clinched 93 out of 100 seats in the Andhra Pradesh Municipal Elections, conducted entirely through ballot paper, calling it a 'reiteration of public trust.'

93 Seats, Ballot Paper, No Escape Clause

The significance of the method is impossible to separate from the result. For years, opposition parties — including Congress and the broader INDI alliance — have questioned the integrity of Electronic Voting Machines, making 'EVM rigging' a persistent refrain after electoral defeats. These municipal polls used ballot paper throughout. The NDA walked away with 93 of 100 seats.

Kishan Reddy did not let the irony pass quietly. 'Congress and the INDI alliance's favorite narrative of EVM rigging lies completely shredded today,' he posted, framing the sweep as empirical proof that the mandate is real, the machinery irrelevant.

The Triple-Engine Alliance in Andhra Pradesh

The victory belongs to all three partners of what Kishan Reddy calls the 'triple-engine alliance' — BJP, Telugu Desam Party (TDP), and Jana Sena Party (JSP). The coalition had already delivered a decisive majority in the 2024 Andhra Pradesh assembly elections, establishing a government that now controls the state executive, its parliamentary seats, and, as of today, its municipal bodies in bulk.

That layered dominance — Centre, state, and now local — is precisely what the minister means by 'triple-engine.' Each tier is meant to reinforce the others: central schemes flow through a friendly state government into municipally administered delivery on the ground. A sweep at the municipal level completes the circuit.

Local Body Wins as Governance Report Cards

Municipal elections are notoriously difficult to win on national narratives alone. Voters weigh garbage collection, water supply, and road repair — the unglamorous last mile of governance. An alliance that wins 93 of 100 urban local body seats is signalling something beyond party loyalty: it is signalling that the delivery machinery is working, or at least that voters believe it is.

Kishan Reddy framed the result in exactly those terms — 'progress, transparency, and good governance' — extending his gratitude to the people of Andhra Pradesh for 'choosing' those values. The language is deliberate: it converts a local poll result into an endorsement of a governing philosophy.

The EVM debate in Indian politics has never really been about the machines — it has always been about legitimacy. Today in Andhra Pradesh, that debate ran out of room to hide.