At Ground Zero of Andhra capital battle, dashed dreams fuel TDP rise, put YSRCP on back foot

“We gave up our fertile lands, borrowed money and bought a house here as we wanted to secure the future of our children. But today, we have nothing to show except our rising debts,” says Ramchandra Rao, a TDP supporter as he hands out the party’s poll pamphlet to locals in Amaravati town in Guntur district.

The contentious issue of capital has continued to haunt state politics since Andhra Pradesh was bifurcated to create the new Telangana state in 2014. With Andhra Pradesh set for simultaneous Assembly and Lok Sabha polls on May 13, the issue has assumed more significance as Hyderabad will cease to be joint capital of the two states after June 2, as per the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014.

The row has flared up after the ruling YSR Congress Party (YSRCP)’s supremo and Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy declared recently at one of his rallies that he would take oath for his second term in the “capital Visakhapatnam”.

After Naidu took charge as the CM after the TDP’s victory in the April-May 2014 Assembly polls, his government proposed the setting up of a “world-class capital” in Amaravati and began land acquisition for it under the AP Capital Development Region (APCDR) proposal from 29 villages surrounding the town.

According to unofficial estimates, about 33,000 acres of land was thus pooled from these villages falling in Guntur and NTR (formerly Krishna) districts for the purpose. The foundation stone for the capital was laid by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in October 2015.

However, after the Jagan-led YSRCP stormed to power in the 2019 polls, his government stalled the APCDR projects and went on to float, in December 2019, a three-capital proposal – involving Visakhapatnam as the “executive capital”, Amaravati as the “legislative capital” and Kurnool as the “judicial capital”. This triggered massive protests from farmers in Amaravati whose

lands were acquired, which have continued until now.

“We gave up our only source of income – fertile land – for the development of the state. Now, with projects stalled and no development taking place, we have nowhere to go. We are forced to stay here,” says J Ramesh, a 47-year-old daily wager from Venkatapalem village, pointing to a thatched hut.

In June last year, the protests intensified after Jagan laid the foundation stone for a project proposing 50,000 houses for the poor to be built on the pooled land in the region.

Near the state secretariat in Amravati, a young woman is gathering plastic from a trash heap. “When I was young, this was a lush green field. About a decade ago, they (TDP) said this village will be transformed into Singapore. Today, it is nothing but a ‘chatta kuppa (heap of garbage)’,”says Sai Lakshmi, 28. “My parents gave away 8 acres of land for the capital. Now they are left to beg on the streets.”

Both the YSRCP and the TDP camps are aware of people’s grievances over the matter. “I know that the people here are facing a lot of trouble,” says

Tenali Sravan Kumar, the TDP’s candidate from the Tatikonda Assembly segment, which encompasses the APCDR. “Their life savings have gone into investing here but due to Jagan’s high-handedness, they are left in the lurch. I will come out with a vision document for all 29 villages within three months of winning the election. In three years of coming to power, we will develop Amaravati into a global city.”

Tatikonda is one of the seven Assembly segments in the Guntur Lok Sabha seat. In the 2019 simultaneous polls, the YSRCP had won six of them (Tadikonda, Ponnur, Tenali, Mangalagiri, Pratipadu and Guntur East) while the TDP had won the remaining one (Guntur West).

However, the TDP’s Jayadev Galla had then managed to win the Guntur Lok Sabha constituency. This time, the TDP has fielded Pemasani Chandrashekhar, one of the country’s richest candidates with declared assets worth over Rs 5,000 crore, from the seat, who is up against the YSRCP’s sitting Ponnur MLA Kilari Venkata Rosaiah. The TDP is fighting the polls in an alliance with Pawan Kalyan-led JanaSena Party (JSP) and the BJP.

In 2019, the Tatikonda seat was won by the YSRCP’s Undavalli Sridevi by about 4,000 votes. Sridevi, who was suspended by the YSRCP for cross-voting in the MLC elections, joined the TDP in December last year.

Tenali Sravan Kumar is pitted against the YSRCP’s Mekatoti Sucharita, the sitting MLA of the neighbouring Pratipadu Assembly seat and ex-state home minister.

Sucharita, who had won by over 7,000 votes in 2019, has her task cut out as the YSRCP seems to be facing a backlash over the capital affair.

“It is difficult for us to even campaign here as people question us about the capital. We try explaining to them about the benefits of a three-capital system but they are hardly convinced,” admits a YSRCP leader, who manages Sucharita’s campaign.

The YSRCP has officially refused to comment, but sources said the party leadership believes the capital issue is restricted to the Amravati region and will not have any bearing on the poll outcome elsewhere.

A senior party leader in Vijayawada said the issue was “done and dusted”. “There is no link between a place having the status of a capital and development. Without having a capital, Jagan has developed the state while taking care of the welfare of people,” he claimed.

The YSRCP leaders in Thullur village, however, strike a different note. “It is difficult for us to campaign for the YSRCP here,” says a party leader. “Some of our cadre is scared to go out as they fear backlash from the people on the capital issue. Anyway, most of them have joined the TDP.”

Interestingly, the YSRCP’s Bapatla MP Nandigama Suresh Babu, who is a native of Uddandarayunipalem, one of the 29 affected villages, refused to comment on the issue.

A few kms away from Suresh’s sprawling house are educational institutions which set up campuses anticipating the development of the capital city. A security guard outside one such campus complains about the lack of safety. “Due to non-payment by the state government, the companies have stopped work mid-way. Apart from the lights in our house, there is no illumination whatsoever in the town. It becomes a scary prospect to venture out at night, especially for women,” he says.

The discontent seem to have spiralled to other belts as well. In Vijayawada, about 20 kms from Amaravati, an auto driver Atif Hussain vows to vote for the TDP. “Every state has a capital. What is Andhra Pradesh’s capital?” he asks. He says the establishment of a state capital creates jobs and leads to overall prosperity of its denizens.

In Machilipatnam, about 80 kms from Amaravati, a cab driver Upendra says he ferried passengers to Amaravati and Vijayawada at least 20 times a month during the TDP regime, which fell to less than 10 since it was replaced with the YSRCP government.

Further north, in Eluru, a local resident Krishna Mohan, 26, says he was forced to return to his home town from Amaravati after the company that was awarded the contract to lay drain pipes in the “new capital” stopped work. “Why would anyone wish to stop such a huge ongoing project for which a plan was also in place and one which had generated employment? So much efforts and so many jobs have gone down the drain,” he says.

Along the main road that leads into Amaravati are large drainage pipes, some of which have vegetation growing inside them now. A disabled man, who has set up a water stall there in the sweltering heat for the passersby, points to a half-constructed apartment complex down the road. “I am originally from Nellore. My son works at a company in Hyderabad. He took a huge loan so that we could buy an apartment here. Look at the building now. I am doing this and my wife works as a domestic help back in Nellore. We aspired to be residents of the capital but have been confined to the roads now,” he says.

In March 2022, the Andhra Pradesh High Court directed the YSRCP government that Amaravati should be developed as the state capital. The government has challenged it in the Supreme Court, where the matter has been pending.

Jagan has included his three-capital pledge with Visakhapatnam as the executive capital in the YSRCP manifesto for the 2024 polls.