The YSR Congress Party (YSRCP), which had scrapped Amaravati as the capital of Andhra Pradesh and strongly pushed for a three-capitals plan while in power, continued to target Amaravati even after losing to the Telugu Desam Party (TDP)-led coalition last year, which revived the capital city project.
Pro-YSRCP media, social media handles, and party leaders repeatedly claimed that Amaravati was unfit to be the state capital, calling it a flood-prone area. A former YSRCP MLA even mocked Amaravati as being “fit only for catching fish.”
However, in a surprising U-turn on Friday, YSRCP state coordinator Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy declared that the party had no plans to revive the three-capitals proposal, even if it returned to power in the next elections.
“Jagan will run the government from Amaravati. We will develop the farmers’ plots as soon as the YSRCP forms the government and make it a livable city,” Sajjala announced.
He further added that a future YSRCP government would also focus on developing a mega city between Guntur and Vijayawada, in a way that reduces costs and eases the financial burden on the state.
In doing so, he hinted that Amaravati would not be developed on the same grand scale envisioned by current Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu.
Interestingly, another senior YSRCP leader, Botsa Satyanarayana, recently said at a press meet that a decision on the capital would be taken “at the right time,” but stopped short of clearly endorsing a revival of the three-capitals plan.
At the same time, Jagan Mohan Reddy has continued to question the Chandrababu government’s “extravagant” spending on Amaravati, arguing that establishing the capital between Vijayawada and Guntur should have been sufficient. Despite his criticism, the TDP government has gone ahead with its vision for Amaravati.
Against this backdrop, Sajjala’s statement that there will be no three-capitals model and that Jagan would govern from Amaravati, if voted back to power, comes as a significant relief for farmers in the region.