Amaravati will be Andhra Pradesh’s capital, Chief Minister-designate N Chandrababu Naidu said on Tuesday, The Indian Express reported.
Naidu’s announcement came a day before he is to be sworn in as the chief minister. On June 4, his Telugu Desam Party along with its National Democratic Alliance partners, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Jana Sena Party, won the Andhra Pradesh Assembly elections.
“Amaravati will be the capital of our state,” the Telugu Desam Party chief said at the coalition’s meeting on Tuesday. “We will aim to develop the entire state, not just a few places.”
Naidu also criticised Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party chief and outgoing Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy for his earlier remarks that he would develop Visakhapatnam as the state’s administrative capital and take his oath there if he wins the Assembly polls.
The YSR Congress Party government had proposed creation of three capitals.
“We will function democratically and secularly and no one’s self-respect will be taken away,” The Indian Express quoted Naidu as saying. “We will all work together for everyone.”
Andhra Pradesh has 175 Assembly seats and the majority mark is 88. The Telugu Desam Party won 135 seats. The Jana Sena Party won 21 seats and the BJP clinched eight.
The ruling YSR Congress Party won 11 seats.
The Assembly polls in Andhra Pradesh were held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha polls. The Telugu Desam Party won 16 of the 25 seats in the Lower House of Parliament. The BJP managed to win three seats and the Jana Sena Party secured two seats.
Reddy’s party won four seats in the general elections.
Andhra Pradesh’s capital
After the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh in 2014, the old capital Hyderabad became a part of Telangana. However, Hyderabad remained the joint capital of the two states for 10 years till June 2, 2024, according to the 2014 Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act.
Andhra Pradesh needed a new capital and the previous Naidu-led Telugu Desam Party government, which was in power in Andhra Pradesh between 2014 and 2019, had declared Amaravati as the state’s new capital.
However, after Reddy became the chief minister in 2019, his government introduced the Andhra Pradesh Decentralisation and Inclusive Development of All Regions Bill that proposed Visakhapatnam as the executive capital, Kurnool as the judicial capital and Amaravati as the legislative capital.
The state government withdrew the bill in 2021 after farmers in Amaravati, who gave more than 30,000 acres of land for the new capital, moved the Andhra Pradesh High Court challenging the decision. More than 55 public interest litigation petitions were filed in the High Court against the bill proposing to form three capitals.
In 2022, the High Court directed the state government to develop Amaravati and surrounding areas as the capital region under provisions of the Andhra Pradesh Capital Region Development Authority Act, 2014, and the Land Pooling Rules, 2015.
The state government challenged the High Court’s ruling in the Supreme Court, where the matter is pending.
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