Jaganmohan Reddy’s proposal to have three capitals for Andhra Pradesh has divided opinion in the BJP into two. While state president Kanna Lakshmi Narayana has slammed the idea to divide administration and the legislature, Rajya Sabha MP and spokesperson GVL Narasimha Rao who hails from Andhra Pradesh, has welcomed the move. 

While the BJP chief is in favour of Kurnool as the judicial capital, he wants a High court bench to be established at Amaravati. Lakshmi Narayana also wants Amaravati whose foundation stone was laid by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to continue as seed capital and develop Visakhapatnam (pic below) as the financial capital. 

From the time that Jagan had put Amaravati on the backburner, the BJP in Andhra Pradesh has been critical of the move. Telugu Desam MP YS Chowdary who moved to the BJP was critical of the move to kill the capital project in Amaravati. However, another TDP MP TG Venkatesh who is now with the BJP is happy with the proposal to have the High court in Kurnool. He had in fact, predicted Jagan’s move many months back.  

The TDP is also in the same dilemma. Though Chandrababu Naidu has rued that his five-year-long work has been wasted, his party leaders in north coastal Andhra Pradesh are pleased with the idea of Visakhapatnam as the seat of power. Even though Vizag is geographically located in one corner of the state, TDP leaders feel that opposing the decision will make them lose support further in both Rayalaseema and north coastal Andhra.