The State government had finally decided not to conduct elections in the 29 village panchayats this time.
As the government is proposing to create a municipal corporation for the capital city, it had written to the State Election Commission to exclude these villages from the local body elections for the time being.
The announcement comes as a relief for both the ruling YSR Congress and the opposition TDP as well as the result would set agenda for both the parties on the decentralization issue.
The capital city, Amaravati, is spread over 29 revenue villages in Thulluru, Tadepalli and Mangalagiri mandals, excluding the mandal headquarters of Tadepalli and Mangalagiri. They are now municipalities and were upgraded recently for their development.
When Amaravati with these 29 village panchayats was proposed as capital city during the TDP government, the then chief minister, Chandrababu Naidu, who dreamt of world class city, did not even make it a urban local body by reorganizing these villages into a Municipality or Municipal Corporation.
The chief minister of the State and his senior officers are now sitting in the limits of Velagapudi village panchayat, where the secretariat is located.
The Jagan Mohan Reddy government had started the exercise to give a urban look to the capital by proposing a urban local body – mostly as Amaravati Municipal Corporation.
Meanwhile, the proposal of decentralization of the capital had come taking away the High Court to Kurnool and Secretariat to Visakhapatnam from Velagapudi, leaving Assembly.
People of these 29 villages are holding protests against this move, which is strongly backed by the opposition TDP, while the ruling YSR Congress is firm on its decision.
Now, excluding these villages from the local body elections, gives a sigh of relief for both the parties as victory will determine their decisions.
If TDP wins the elections in the 29 villages, its stand for one capital in Amaravati will hold good. If YSR Congress wins, its decision to decentralize administration is supported. Thus, either of the parties would have to change their stand based on the election results.
However, the government had avoided this piquant situation for both the parties by deferring the elections, giving a sigh of relief to the leaders of the two parties and the people of Amaravati villages as well.
