Araku (ST) Lok Sabha constituency: The only ST constituency in Andhra Pradesh

Araku (ST) is one of the 25 Lok Sabha constituencies in Andhra Pradesh and came into existence in 2008 after the Delimitation Commission of India recommended implementation of delimitation of parliamentary constituencies. It is also the only ST constituency in Andhra Pradesh.

In 2009 Lok Sabha election, Kishore Chandra Deo of Congress registered an easy  win here by defeating CPI(M)'s Midiyam Baburao. Tables turned completely by 2014 Lok Sabha election for both Congress and CPI(M) with YSCR's Kothapalli Geetha who won by a margin of 91,398 votes. TDP's Gummidi Sandhyarani was placed second. Geetha has since - in August of 2018, formed her own party called Jana Jagruti Party.

YSCR, however, would be fancying its prospects this year as well and just last month, 400 tribals joined the party. Of these, 62 were sarpanches, 26 were Mandal Parishad members and 45 were former sarpanches. The party is hoping that they can mobilise voters at the ground level to keep TDP and Congress at bay once again.

The issue of tribals - their welfare and development - forms an integral part of what political parties promise here. Then there is the question of looking after Kapus, SCs, Yadavas and Matsyakaras as well.

The menace of Maoists too pose a grave threat with TDP MLA Sarveswara Rao bein gunned down here just last September. Rao has been elected MLA on YSCR ticket but had switched over to TDP.

In the 2014 Lok Sabha election, 913838 votes were cast across 1628 polling stations with a voter turnout of 71.82%.