The resounding success of the Visakha Garjana rally spearheaded by ruling YSR Congress party leadership on Saturday in support of making Visakhapatnam as the executive capital of Andhra Pradesh is learnt to have left the Telugu Desam Party leaders of north-coastal Andhra in jitters.
Analysts say the YSRC leaders had by and large succeeded in generating some kind of sentiment towards the capital city at Visakhapatnam among the people of north-coastal Andhra in the last few days and the Saturday’s rally has given a lot of fillip to the movement.
Particularly in Srikakulam and Vizianagaram districts, the sentiment for the capital has suddenly picked up in the last few weeks, though the natives of Visakhapatnam city are still apprehensive about the possibility of the city becoming the executive capital in the near future.
This has left the TDP leaders in a tricky situation.
“We are able to gauge the growing sentiment towards the executive capital at Visakhapatnam. But our party has taken a policy decision to fight for Amaravati as the only capital. We don’t know what to do,” a senior TDP leader from Visakhapatnam said.
The TDP leaders are of the view that if they at least remained silent, they would be in a safer position.
“But our boss Chandrababu Naidu wants us to make arrangements for the Amaravai farmers when they come to north coastal Andhra and extend support to them,” he said.
This will put the TDP on a disadvantageous position at a time when the party is hoping to regain the ground in north-coastal Andhra, which it had lost in 2019 assembly elections.
“It appears, the YSRC will retain its supremacy in these three districts by kicking up the capital sentiment and that will help the party to return to power for a second successive term, albeit with a lesser majority,” an analyst said.
