It was a thunderous response from the entire political spectrum, barring the ruling YSR Congress Party, to the farmers’ plea to retain Amaravati as the State’s sole capital.
The public meeting conducted at Daminedu on the city outskirts on Friday by the farmers on conclusion of their 400-km long ‘Nyayasthanam to Devasthanam’ Padayatra provided the platform for all parties to fault the Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy government for taking a ‘U-turn’ on the capital issue.
Apart from the main opposition Telugu Desam Party, which has been championing the cause of Amaravati, the BJP, the CPI, the Congress and the Jana Sena Party offered unequivocal support to the farmers and expressed resentment over the three-capital proposal, terming that such a move could make governance go haywire.
Even while vouching for decentralisation of administration, representatives of all the parties unilaterally supported Amaravati as the sole capital. The parties also faulted the ruling YSRCP’s attempt to paint the capital beneficiaries as belonging to a particular community and said Amaravati belonged to the people of all castes, religions and regions.
Recalling the efforts taken during his regime to build the capital from scratch, TDP president and former Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu said the incumbent regime’s ‘short-sighted’ decision had cost the State and the capital region dear. Criticising the Chief Minister for his ‘volte-face’, Mr. Naidu alleged it had exhibited his lack of vision.
BJP former State president Kanna Lakshminarayana recalled that the NDA government had sanctioned several facilities to Amaravati only after it was declared the capital and said the party remained committed to its word. Jana Sena Party’s political advisory committee member Pasupuleti Hariprasad read out the party president Pawan Kalyan’s message, who asserted that he always stood with the farmers. CPI secretary K. Narayana faulted the move to shift capital with the change of guard, terming it an avoidable ruckus.
Congress Working President N. Thulasi Reddy said it was unbecoming of the Chief Minister to create rift between regions and cause angst in farmers. K. Raghu Ramakrishnama Raju, Member of Parliament from the ruling party, was the cynosure of all eyes, whose open support to the cause was welcomed with loud cheers.
