When the state was first created, Tanguturi Prakasam Pantulu, became the chief minister. After the unification with Telangana, Neelam Sanjiva Reddy became the first chief minister. He later served as president of India.
The Indian National Congress (INC), the Praja Socialist Party and the Krishi Lok Party were the major parties in the 1950s. Later the Communist Party of India (CPI) became the dominant opposition party. In the 1967 state assembly elections, all socialist parties were eliminated and the CPI lost opposition party status.
The INC ruled the state from 1956 to 1982. In 1983, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) won the state elections and N. T. Rama Rao became the chief minister of the state for the first time. This broke the long-time single party monopoly enjoyed by the INC. The 1989 elections ended the rule of Rao, with the INC returning to power with Marri Chenna Reddy at the helm. He was replaced by Janardhan Reddy in 1990, who was replaced by Kotla Vijaya Bhaskara Reddy in 1992. In 1994, Andhra Pradesh gave a mandate to the Telugu Desam Party again, and Rao became the chief minister again. Nara Chandrababu Naidu, Rao's son-in-law, came to power in 1995 with the backing of a majority of the MLAs. The Telugu Desam Party won both the assembly and Lok Sabha election in 1999 under the leadership of Chandrababu Naidu. Thus Naidu held the record for the longest-serving chief minister (1995 to 2004).
In the last elections held in the unified state in 2014, the TDP got a mandate in their favour in the residuary (new) state. After Telangana became a separate state, Naidu, the chief of the TDP became chief minister on 8 June 2014, for the new state of Andhra Pradesh. As of 2014, the Legislative Assembly of Andhra Pradesh is the lower house of the state with 175 members and the Legislative Council is the upper house with 58 members. In the Parliament of India, Andhra Pradesh has 11 seats in the Rajya Sabha, and 25 seats in the Lok Sabha. There are a total of 175 Assembly constituencies in the state. East Godavari district has the highest number of constituencies with 19 and Vizianagaram district has the least with 9 assembly seats. Whereas, the legislative council of the state has 58 seats, which is one-third of total assembly seats.
In the 2019 elections, Y. S. Jaganmohan Reddy of YSR Congress Party became chief minister by winning 151 seats out of 175 seats, securing almost 86% of the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly.