Amaravati should be Andhra Pradesh's sole capital: Rahul Gandhi

Congress scion Rahul Gandhi said that his party is in support of retaining Amaravati as the sole capital of Andhra Pradesh.

"AP should have one capital and that should be Amaravati," Rahul Gandhi said at press meet in Adoni on Wednesday.

On the new Congress chief's election and his role under him, Rahul said, “Congress president is the supreme authority in the party and every Congress member reports to that person.”

Also Read — New Congress president will decide my role: Rahul Gandhi

“The new Congress president will decide what my role will be and how I am going to be deployed (in the service of the party),” he said.

Rahul Gandhi's 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' is currently passing through Kurnool district.

“My position on Amaravati is very clear. We do not think the idea of having three capitals is a sensible, efficient one,” Rahul Gandhi said when a reporter sought to know his stand on Chief Minister Jaganmohan Reddy's agenda of having three capitals.

Reddy's plan, since he became the Chief Minister in 2019, is to shift the executive seat to Visakhapatnam, and judiciary to Kurnool, while demoting the “mega, world class capital” Amaravati, as envisioned by his predecessor Chandrababu Naidu, to just legislative capital.

Reddy's shifting of the capital is, however, on hold since August 2020 following directions of the Andhra Pradesh high court reviewing the petitions of farmers.

Meanwhile, the farmers of the 29 Amaravati villages, who parted with their fertile lands abutting Krishna river in 2015 for the massive project, are continuing their agitation against “capital decentralisation".

Rahul said that he had on Tuesday met some of these farmers, “who gave up land and were (later) cheated.”

“We stand by the people defending their rights,” he said.

When asked if he has any regrets over the Congress-led UPA's decision to split AP in 2014 which resulted in his party's wipe-out in the state, Rahul said that he “is not interested in delving into the past".

“I am not going to go into the past. I am interested in discussing the future and I am very clear that as far as AP is concerned, there are commitments made to the people which have to be fulfilled,” Rahul said in apparent reference to the demand of special status, etc. to the state.