Amaravathi, near Vijayawada was proposed to be the new capital of Andhra Pradesh, after the bifurcation of the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh state into Andhra and Telangana in 2014. The new residual state of Andhra’s first elected party in the 2014 elections, was the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) headed by N Chandrababu Naidu, known for the rapid development of Hyderabad city in the former unified state.
The primary thought behind Amarvathi’s selection as a capital, was its relatively central/equidistant location for most of Andhra’s districts and its proximity to Vijayawada and Guntur, two developed cities with certain conveniences already in place (airport, rail services, educational institutions, hospitals, hotels etc).
The port city of Vishakapatnam (a.k.a Vizag) had also come up for discussions but it was thought that its location on one end of the north eastern coastline of Andhra, would be a distant reach for Andhrites living in the southern and western districts of the state.
Amaravathi is centrally located relative to most parts of the state. It lies on the banks of the River Krishna, 10 kms from Vijayawada and 25 kms from Guntur. It comes with an ancient, illustrious Buddhist and Hindu history, dating back to 2,200 years. The foundation stone for the proposed new capital city was laid in October 2015, by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Naidu and the TDP had planned on developing Amarvathi into a modern, high-tech, high-rise city on the lines of city-states like Singapore, which are known for efficient, optimal utilization of available space, given limited land resources. The grand plans for the city included the former AP government’s one-of-a-kind PPP (public private partnership) arrangement, wherein local farmers would give up some of their land for a guaranteed return on investment (ROI) towards the development of a capital city. Naidu’s government had managed to pull it off with local farmers, agreeing to having their lands utilized for an important purpose and in the larger interest of the new state.
Development was underway and progress being made but the 2019 state elections saw the TDP lose power to the YSRCP party led by YS Jagan Mohan Reddy. While Jagan had in principle, agreed to “Amaravathi” when he was leader of Opposition in the first term (2014-2019), he began to pitch a different idea, post his win in the 2019 elections. His rationale behind a “three capitals” proposition was supposedly for the development of three cities, rather than a focus on one capital city. He envisioned a capital each for the Legistative, Executive and Judiciary branches of the government. Jagan’s proposal of three capitals for AP, was seen by many, as an impractical idea in light of infrastructural, logistical, bureaucratical and administrative difficulties.
In August 2020, Jagan’s YSRCP party passed the “Andhra Pradesh Decentralisation and Inclusive Development of All Regions Act”, in the state Legislative Assembly, with provisions to promote Visakhapatnam (Vizag) as the executive capital while Amaravati and Kurnool would serve as legislative and judicial capitals, respectively. The Adani Group is a major investor in and around Vizag city. Rumour has it that Jagan and his close associates including Vijay Sai Reddy, have indulged in land grabbing/acquired huge tracts of land in and around Vishakapatnam. Vijay Sai Reddy’s close kin, have been identified as offenders by the ED, in the recent Delhi Liquor Scam.
Widespread farmers protests in the Amaravathi region and a number of cases filed against the Act’s “three-capital” proposal, resulted in the AP high court ordering a stop to implementation of the plan and recommended a status quo on the issue, pending further hearings. In November 2021, the Jagan government decided to withdraw the Act. In March of this year, the High Court had directed the state government to develop “plots” in Amaravati in three months time and build the capital city in six months. Jagan’s government has since challenged the High court’s order in the Supreme Court and is waiting for a hearing on the issue.
It is now being reported that CM, Jagan Reddy has alerted his cabinet colleagues and senior government officials, of his intention to move to Visakhapatnam from his current residence near Vijayawada city, in March 2023. Jagan is learnt to have told officials to be ready to move to the port city, on or after March 10, 2023 and find themselves office as well as residential spaces.
The CM appears to have decided to move to Visakhapatnam without naming it as the Capital, as he chooses to evade the state High Court’s order on Amaravathi and instead wait on an upcoming hearing on the matter in the Supreme Court. Interestingly, there is no provision in the Constitution that discusses jurisdiction on the seat of administration for a state. Jagan is said to have used this ambiguity and lack of information, to initiate his move to Vishakapatnam, even as many of his previous attempts to his three-capital proposal, lies languishing in court rooms.
According to his legal advisors, the chief minister plans to move his office to a place of his choice,
without making any reference to the contentious issue of declaring it a “capital”. It is being speculated that Jagan may have secured an informal, “oral” clearance for his move, from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his recent visit to Visakhapatnam earlier this month. Meanwhile, the TDP’s Chandrababu Naidu and current Opposition leader in A.P, is fervently trying to get into the good books of the BJP, a former alliance partner that he parted ways with, ahead of the 2019 elections. As of yesterday November 28, the Supreme Court has ordered a postponement of the Amaravati case to January 2023 and has asked for additional information from the farmers groups, the A.P State government and the Central government. For now, the suspense around a capital city for Andhra Pradesh remains…much to the disappointment of the people of the state!
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