With the Andhra Pradesh state high court stalling the three capitals plan and upholding Amaravati as the only capital of the state, YSR Congress party president and chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy appears to have decided to exploit it for his political advantage.
It was evident from the way Jagan has raised the bogey of self-respect of north coastal Andhra while addressing a meeting on the occasion of the launch of Jagananna Housing Colonies scheme in Anakapalle.
“I had planned to make Visakhapatnam as the executive capital of the state for a decentralised development and as a mark of self-respect of the people of north-Andhra. But you have all seen how Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu and his team got it stalled in the court,” he said.
During the Jagan’s visit to Anakapalle, the YSRC leaders made a huge campaign for Visakhapatnam as the executive capital. There were cutouts, banners and posters everywhere describing Visakhapatnam as the executive capital.
Local MLA and presently state minister for IT and industries Gudivada Amarnath also launched a huge campaign on the social media stating that Visakhapatnam would become the state executive capital one day or the other, despite hectic efforts by Naidu to stall it.
In the same breath, Jagan also accused Naidu of hurting the sentiments of the Rayalaseema people by stalling the judicial capital at Kurnool.
“In fact, he had no love for even Amaravati. When I constructed my own house in Tadepalli when I was in opposition, he built a palace in Hyderabad,” he criticised.
Stating that the “gang of four” (Naidu, his adopted son and his friendly media) had no other agenda except to malign his government, the chief minister said they had obstructed even the construction of houses for the weaker sections in Amaravati on the ground that it would affect their community interests.
“They are envious of every decision taken by our government and therefore, are creating hurdles to us at every step. They are stalling financial institutions and banks to give loans to the state for helping the poor. They are not able to digest when the state is asking for central assistance,” he said.
Stating that there is no question of compromising on his philosophy of taking up welfare schemes for the poor, Jagan appealed to the people to compare his government with that of the previous TDP government led by Naidu.
