NELLORE: With the YSR Congress government batting for Visakhapatnam as executive capital, some senior leaders of Rayalaseema led by former Nandyal MP Gangula Pratap Reddy are back with the demand for a Greater Rayalaseema state with Tirupati as its capital.
Pratap Reddy pressed for a Greater Rayalaseema consisting of Anantapur, Kurnool, Kadapa, Chittoor, Nellore and Prakasam districts on the plea that both Chandrababu Naidu and Jagan Mohan Reddy ignored the region even as they are from Rayalaseema.
Speaking to Deccan Chronicle during his visit to Nellore to mobilise support for statehood to Greater Rayalaseema, Pratap Reddy said their agitation initiated in 2020 was affected because of the Covid situation for two years.
“Tirupati is most suitable to become the capital due to fast-paced industrial development, international airport, proximity to Krishnapatnam port as also to Chennai and Bengaluru cities besides the presence of large extents of government land in the vicinity,” he said.
Reminding that the capital should be in Rayalaseema region and the high court in coastal Andhra as per the Sribagh pact between politicians of Rayalaseema and coastal Andhra in 1937, he said the agreement was simply ignored.
Though the first capital was set up at Kurnool after AP was carved out of combined Madras state in 1953, it was shifted to Hyderabad later.
He appealed to all people in Nellore and Prakasam districts to join his campaign for a separate state.
