Hyderabad: BJP Rajya Sabha member and former Union minister Sujana Chowdary on Saturday warned the Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy-led government against shifting Andhra Pradesh capital from Amaravati to Visakhapatnam as it required the permission of the Central government. “The Centre won’t allow such shifting as it concerned several legal and administrative aspects,” he said.
Chowdary, who was minister in the Narenxdra Modi’s previous government as the representative of TDP, subsequently joined BJP and now is one of the leaders who are objecting to shifting of the Andhra Pradesh capital from Amaravati or dilution of the city’s status in any way. Chowdary, who was in Amaravati, demanded that the Jagan government should stick to the capital as it was launched by Prime Minister Modi five years ago.
“The AP Bifurcation Act 2014 clearly stipulates that the Centre should help AP in developing its own capital in lieu of Hyderabad which went to Telangana. As part of the law, the previous NDA government has given around Rs 1,500 crore and is in the pipeline of giving some more funds for Amaravati as decided by the previous TDP regime,” he said.
“What will happen to these funds, if the capital is shifted to some other city; how can the Centre be expected to give funds further?” asked Chowdary, amidst AP BJP’s announcement that it would strongly protest the Jagan government’s move to dilute the status of Amaravati as the only capital of Andhra Pradesh. CM Jagan is planning to decentralise the administration from two more cities in the state.
Sources in BJP told this newspaper that the party would fight against the capital shifting proposal and would explore all options, including submitting a memorandum to the PM, Home Minister Amit Shah and others on this issue. “Visakhapatnam is a sensitive port city with some defense establishments and it is necessary to obtain permission of the Centre to make it a state capital,” said an Andhra Pradesh BJP leader.
However, there appears differences among BJP leaders from Andhra Pradesh on opposing Jagan government’s move to shift the capital from Amaravati to Visakhapatnam. A section, including party’s spokesman and Rajya Sabha MP G.V.L. Narasimha Rao, is of the view that the state government has every right to decide the capital and the Centre has little role in it.
These leaders say that the choice of Amaravati, too, was of the previous TDP government and that the Centre hasn’t played any role in deciding the location of the capital. Now that the Jagan-led YSR Congress government has decided to go for a decentralised three capitals formula, the Centre cannot help it, they say. Allocation of funds to any capital was not an issue, said a leader from this view point.
Another section which is the dominant one, is of the view that as a political party which aspires to come to power in 2014, BJP should make every effort to stall the Jagan government’s moves on the capital issue and work along with other like-minded allies, Jana Sena at present. “Our president J.P. Nadda, too, approved our line of opposing the Jagan government,” said Kanna Lakshminarayana, Andhra Pradesh BJP president.