Andhra Pradesh 3-capitals row: TDP to take Amaravati protest to Parliament budget session

The Telugu Desam Party has decided to take its Amaravati agitation to the budget session of Parliament, beginning this Friday.

Party chief Chandrababu Naidu met the TDP MPs of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha on Tuesday to discuss their action plan. The council dissolution matter was also discussed.

“Our party would raise the Amaravati issue and various constitutional, human rights violations taking place in Andhra Pradesh, in Parliament. We would also be submitting representations to the Prime Minister, home minister, NHRC and National Commission for Women,” said Jayadev Galla, the TDP Parliamentary Party leader.

“Capital shifting was not part of the YSRCP manifesto, nor they said any such thing before the polls to the voters, which means the mandate they received is not to change capitals,” Galla said.

K Atchannaidu, a senior TDP MLA challenged Jaganmohan Reddy to dissolve the assembly too and hold fresh elections. “If people vote him again, he is welcome to set up 30 capitals,” the former minister said.

Meanwhile, the AP government has reportedly sent the resolution passed by the state assembly for abolition of the legislative council to the central government for further course of Parliament’s approval.

Reacting to CM Jaganmohan Reddy’s statement that the council is guzzling Rs 60 crore per annum, Naidu said, “For Jagan to attend the court every week, the government has to spend Rs 60 lakh for security etc., arrangements which means about Rs 30 crore per year. Is this not strange?”

Reddy is required to appear before the special CBI court in Hyderabad every Friday in connection with the various disproportionate assets cases against him. Since he became the CM, Reddy has been requesting the courts to exempt him from personal appearance.

YSRCP leaders believe that given the palpable hostility towards Naidu from PM Narendra Modi, home minister Amit Shah side, the centre might move quickly on introducing a bill allowing abolition of the AP council.

Though the state BJP and party ally Pawan Kalyan of Jana Sena have been speaking against Jagan’s decisions on Amaravati and the council, the central party leadership thus far has been non-committal to the position of their AP unit.

The agitation in the 29 Amaravati villages was in its 42^nd day Tuesday, with farmers and women taking to the streets and resorting to dramatic protests like standing half submerged in water bodies and conducting temple rituals seeking the CM’s change of mind.