YSR Congress party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy for announcing creation of three capital cities for the state evoked strong resistance from Telugu Desam Party president and former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu.
He described the decision as a “Tughlaq move” and wondered where from Jagan would operate – Visakhapatnam or Amaravati or Kurnool. He said the decision would cause serious troubles for the people.
But to the utter shock of Naidu, his own party MLA and former minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao welcomed Jagan’s decision. Within hours of the announcement, Ganta tweeted welcoming the move.
“I wholeheartedly welcome CM Jagan’s statement that Visakhapatnam would be made administrative capital. There is no doubt that Visakhapatnam would fulfil the aspirations of all sections of people, as it has road, rail and air connectivity. If this cosmopolitan metropolitan city becomes an administrative capital, it will emerge as a world city. The people of Visakhapatnam will definitely cooperate with you,” Ganta, who represents Visakhapantam (North) assembly constituency tweeted.
The tweet triggered serious discussion in the TDP circles in Visakhapatnam. There is a talk that Ganta might have made the statement defying the party’s stand only to find a reason for his plan to defect into the YSRC.
For quite some time, Ganta has been desperately trying to shift the loyalties to the YSRC, but he could not succeed due to strong resistance from Avanti Srinivas, a minister in Jagan cabinet. At the same time, Ganta also did not find a proper excuse to defend his defection.
Now that Jagan’s statement on the capitals has come as a pretext for Ganta to take a decision to join the ruling party. That is why, he made a statement against the TDP’s interests, say sources.
