YSR Congress has dismissed speculation that Jagan may offer to join NDA.
Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s support to make Visakhapatnam as the executive capital of the state, while retaining the Assembly at Amaravati and shifting the High Court to Kurnool. Jagan held an hour-long meeting with the PM at his residence in Delhi Wednesday evening.
According to indications from the AP CM’s office, Prime Minister Modi is understood to have given his nod to the proposal, but asked the former to meet Union Home Minister Amit Shah separately to discuss the details of further cooperation between the two sides. Jagan rushed again Friday night to meet Shah on the nitty-gritty of shifting the capital to Visakhapatnam. Jagan made a detailed presentation to the Prime Minister on his main demands—of abolition of AP Legislative Council and granting of special category status to Andhra Pradesh. If the Centre agrees to them at the earliest, Jagan was ready to join hands with the Modi-led BJP government. Besides, there is a long list of economic demands which the Centre might not find difficult to concede.
Speculation was rife among Andhra Pradesh political circles on Thursday on Jagan offering to join NDA and that his party’s Rajya Sabha MP V. Vijaya Sai Reddy becoming a Union minister. But, the senior leaders of YSR Congress dismissed them, saying that Jagan was not after power at any stage. “This talk of our party joining NDA came up after the last year elections too, but we are not in a hurry,” a party leader said.
YSR Congress sources at the same time underlined the possibility of their party joining the BJP-led NDA in case the PM and Home Minister were ready to concede at least three of the main demands—abolition of Legislative Council and grant of special category status to Andhra Pradesh and agreeing to shift the capital from Amaravati to Visakhapatnam.
The Andhra Assembly has already passed a unanimous resolution recommending abolition of the Legislative Council and sent it to the Centre for passage of a resolution in the Parliament. Only after the Bill was passed by the Parliament, it would go for Presidential assent; it will become the law and the Council stands abolished.
Some MPs of YSR Congress who spoke to this newspaper on phone from Delhi said that the PM had agreed to consider introducing a Bill for abolishing the legislative council of Andhra Pradesh during the second leg of the ongoing budget session of Parliament. “But, more clarity will come from Home Minister Shah soon as he is to move the Bill,” said an YSR Congress MP, preferring anonymity.
Jagan is optimistic of the Centre moving a Bill for the Council abolition during the current budget session. If the Centre takes this initiative, the CM is ready to go an extra mile and consider joining the NDA. But there has to be some goodwill gesture on the part of the Prime Minister and Home Minister on the Jagan’s wish-list, sources close to him said.
In fact, the Chief Minister doesn’t need any formal clearance from the Centre for his proposals to shift the capital to Visakhapatnam or High Court to Kurnool, but he has shared his views on these two issues with the Prime Minister and Home Minister only as a goodwill gesture from his side. “He (Jagan) needs the full support and blessings of the Prime Minister and Home Minister for running the government in the next four-and-a-half years,” sources close to the CM said.
Jagan has invited Prime Minister Modi to Andhra Pradesh on 25 March, Ugadi festival, on the occasion of launch of a housing scheme for around 25 lakh poor families in the state. The PM is yet to visit Andhra Pradesh after he came to power for the second term. Sources in the CMO said that the PM is likely to accept the invitation and come to Andhra Pradesh next month. Prominent among other items on Jagan’s wish-list are sanction of Central assistance to the Polavaram irrigation project across Godavari and speedy completion of all Central educational institutions sponsored under the AP bifurcation Act 2014 and grant of revenue deficit to the state. Jagan has sought some Central government lands for housing purpose in Andhra Pradesh.
However, Opposition TDP has criticised Jagan for trying to hush up criminal cases against him in the CBI and Enforcement Directorate courts. “Jagan has met the PM several times in the last seven times, but hasn’t achieved any single rupee. The CM is only interested in escaping from the ongoing CBI and ED cashes against him,” said TDP senior leader and MLC Yanamala Ramakrishnudu.