With the agitation against the capital shift mostly confined to the Amaravati-Vijayawada region, TDP chief and the megacity planner Chandrababu Naidu is touring other parts of the state to galvanise public sentiment against his successor’s plans to dismantle his dream project.
The former chief minister is going around the towns he is visiting with a jholey (sling cloth) seeking alms from the locals to financially support the Amaravati agitation.
Naidu, nearing 70, has been urging the people, especially the youth, “to lose lethargy and take part in the protests, for their and next generations' future".
Supported by the TDP, Jana Sena, Left and other parties, farmers of 29 villages who parted with their lands for the greenfield capital, and other public groups of Guntur and Krishna districts at the junction of which Amaravati lies have intensified their protests, into 28th day now.
However, the same distress is absent in other parts of the state like Rayalaseema, a backward region, where the first Andhra capital was located at Kurnool from 1953 to 1956.
On Monday, Naidu visited Anantapuram district and warned the public there that they will have to travel for four days to get even a small work done in the capital, if it shifts to Vizag. He challenged CM Jaganmohan Reddy to seek fresh elections and go ahead with his plans if people re-elect him.
Anantapuram towns would be the farthest from the capital if it moves to Vizag in northern Andhra. Hindupuram near Karnataka border is over 900 kms from Vizag by road and is only 100 kms from Bengaluru.
In Penukonda, Naidu termed himself a Rayalaseema bidda (son of the soil), and said he was never against Rayalaseema's interests. He reminded that he brought Kia Motors to the area.
Naidu held his Amaravati Praja Chaitanya Yatra in Tirupati on Saturday. On Monday, YSRCP has held a counter-rally in Tirupati in support of the Reddy government’s proposal of three capitals.
Meanwhile, a high-power committee of ministers set up to provide a road map for decentralised capital structure has met for the third time in Vijayawada on Monday. An appeal was made to the protesting farmers and other sections to submit their concerns so that they could be addressed by the panel later this week.
