include Sadasiva Brahmendra, Bhaktha Kannappa, Yogi Vemana and Pothuluru Veerabrahmendra. Mahayana Buddhism Buddhism spread to Andhra Pradesh early in its history. The Krishna river valley was "a site of extraordinary Buddhist activity for almost a thousand years." The ancient Buddhist sites in the lower Krishna valley, including Amaravati, Nagarjunakonda and Jaggayyapeta "can be traced to at least the third century BCE, if not earlier." The region played a central role in the development of Mahayana Buddhism, along with the Magadha-area in northeastern India. A. K. Warder holds that "the Mahāyāna originated in the south of India and almost certainly in the Andhra country." According to Xing, "Several scholars have suggested that the Prajnaparamita probably developed among the Mahasamghikas in Southern India probably in the Andhra country, on the Krishna River." The Prajñāpāramitā Sutras belong to the earliest Mahayana Sutras. Administrative divisions Regions Andhra Pradesh comprises three regions, namely Uttarandhra, Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema. Districts It has a total of 26 districts, twelve in Coastal Andhra region, six in Uttarandhra and eight in the Rayalaseema region. Uttarandhra region : Alluri Sitharama Raju Anakapalli Parvathipuram Manyam Srikakulam Visakhapatnam Vizianagaram Coastal Andhra region : Bapatla Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Konaseema East Godavari District with Rajahmundry Headquarters Eluru Guntur Kakinada Krishna NTR Palnadu Prakasam Sri Potti Sriramulu Nellore West Godavari Rayalaseema region : Anantapur Annamayya Chittoor YSR Kurnool Nandyal Sri Sathya Sai Tirupati Revenue divisions These 26 districts are further divided into 77 revenue divisions. Mandals The 77 revenue divisions are in turn divided into 679 mandals. Cities There are a total of 31 cities which include, 16 municipal corporations and 14 municipalities. There are two cities with more than one million inhabitants, namely Visakhapatnam and Vijayawada. Government and politics 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 the 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