Andhra Pradesh

Chandrababu Naidu will look for clear political gains from his Amaravati trip

Chandrababu Naidu is clearly encouraged by the editorials and op-eds in national dailies slamming the Jaganmohan Reddy government for its decision to neglect Amaravati. The Singapore Consortium pulled out earlier this month by mutual consent because no work had taken place in the core capital area of Amaravati. And the YSRCP government has constituted a committee headed by retired IAS officer GN Rao to examine issues related to Amaravati and to ask stakeholders their opinion. 

Naidu is now planning to keep the heat on the Jagan regime by touring Amaravati on 28 November. On the agenda during his first visit to the capital region, where work has come to a complete standstill since the TDP lost power, is to speak to farmers who had given their land as part of the land pooling exercise and also to criticise the `reverse governance’ that Jagan has practised. Since May 2019, Jagan has been obsessed with reversing just about every decision that was taken by the TDP government

To look at the TDP chief’s visit to Amaravati as just another tour would be to read it wrong. There is larger politics at work.

Naidu, in his letter to Amit Shah, touched upon how the foundation stone for Amaravati was laid by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Naidu is trying to convey that Jagan is actually killing a Modi project. 

Two, though this part of Andhra Pradesh was seen as a TDP stronghold, it lost heavily even in the capital region. His son Nara Lokesh lost from Mangalagiri even though parts of the constituency fall under Amaravati. The intention is to mobilise the TDP cadre and consolidate the party position in the capital zone.

Three, the TDP chief’s intention is to project Jagan as a non-visionary who is driving away investors from Andhra Pradesh. 

Four, the petition filed by NTR’s widow Lakshmi Parvathi is to come before the Anti-Corruption Bureau on Monday. Naidu knows the YSRCP will rake up enough mud on social media platforms and Amaravati will be a good way to pay back in the same coin.

Five, the last time Naidu organised a tour of this kind to Atmakur to highlight the alleged killings by YSRCP cadre, he was put under house arrest. Even though he could not undertake the trip, the developments brought a lot of mileage to the TDP chief. Naidu would not mind an encore with Amaravati.

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