Fate of Andhra’s Capital Hangs in Air

There are demands to continue Hyderabad as the joint Capital of AP and Telangana till settlement of the capital issue. The elections were held in AP on May 13, counting of votes will be held on June 4 and if YSRC led by Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy regains power then Visakhapatnam will be executive capital. Telugu Desam chief Nara Chandrababu Naidu already affirmed to continue with his utopian project of Amaravati if TD-Jana Sena-BJP alliance wins the elections.

Interestingly, while matters such as apportioning of public assets worth up to Rs1.4 lakh crore are still pending, ruling YSRC and principal opposition TD continue to toe their respective positions of a single and multiple capital cities.

Enacted on March 1, 2014, the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014 mandated that Hyderabad shall be the common capital for both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh ‘for such period not exceeding 10 years', and accordingly, effective June 2, 2024, Hyderabad will be the capital city only for Telangana .

When Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy captured power and became Chief Minister in 2019, dislodging the Chandrababu Naidu-led TD regime (2014-19), he shattered the Amaravati capital dreams of his predecessor by coming up with the proposal to have three capital cities for the all-round and all regions development of AP.

Jagan Mohan Reddy projected Amaravati as the legislative capital, Kurnool as judicial capital and the port city of Visakhapatnam the executive capital, from where he would function. Jagan for the past four years mainly in the past two years had promised multiple times that he would relocate to Visakhapatnam but failed to keep his word, and according to the YSRC it was owing to legal tangles. Matters related to the three capital cities proposal are pending before the Supreme Court.

Jagan Mohan Reddy seeking a fresh mandate in 2024 elections announced that he will take oath as Chief Minister for the second term at Visakhapatnam after winning the elections. Already Jagan government identified accommodations to CMO, ministers and HODs at Visakhapatnam mostly in state-owned spaces and buildings. The YSRC is making arrangements for the grand gala oath taking ceremony of Jagan on June 9 at auspicious muhurut of 9.38 am predicting repetition of 2019's landslide victory in the 2024 elections.

YSRC Rajya Sabha member Alla Ayodhya Rami Reddy reiterated his party's stand of setting up three-capitals to ensure decentralisation and good governance. On the other hand, TD is also hoping for a big victory to NDA also planning to conduct Naidu's oath taking programme in Amaravati on June 9 in a mega manner showing TD's commitment for Amaravati development as World Class Capital.

On the other hand, former police officer-turned-politician, V. V. Lakshminarayana said Andhra Pradesh should demand the Centre to continue with the ongoing arrangement of Hyderabad as joint capital till finalisation of the capital city. He further said, “Only the announcement was made, foundation stone laid and some work had started on Amaravati but the full-fledged capital has not come up. But there is an opportunity, parties should be able to convince the President of India to extend Hyderabad as joint capital until a capital city comes up,” he asserted.

Leaders of various political movements and organisations, Korivi Vinaykumar and others said that the transfer of assets of 242 institutions worth of Rs 1.42 lakh crore has to be valued and still it is incomplete. They said according to the AP Reorganisation Act, the assets of the Public Sector Undertakings are 58 per cent for AP and 42 per cent for Telangana and it should be distributed accordingly.

They expressed fear that AP students will lose 15 percent convener quota seats hence the central government should extend Hyderabad as the joint capital of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana States till settlement of the capital issue.