YSRCP MLA resignation adds to stir for executive capital in Visakhapatnam as JAC formed

The JAC was born in Visakhapatnam, with former Dr BR Amdbedkar University vice-chancellor Prof Hanumanthu Lajapathi Rai as its chairman.

It is drawing comparisons with the Telangana JAC that spearheaded the Telangana movement and played a crucial role in the state’s formation.

Committee chalks out action plan

The JAC formation was announced in a meeting held in Visakhapatnam on Saturday, 8 October.

It was also announced that an action plan had been chalked out to ensure Visakhapatnam as the state’s executive capital.

The action plan reportedly includes a massive public meeting in Visakhapatnam on 15 October, apparently aimed at sending a strong message about the aspirations of north Andhra people to other parts of the state.

Sources told South First that the JAC was planning to mobilise at least 1 lakh people from the three combined districts of north Andhra: Visakhapatnam, Vizianagaram and Srikakulam.

Three-capitals JAC Chairman Prof Lajipathi Rai. (Supplied)

“It’s now or never. North Andhra has been neglected or ignored and away from development for the last 60 years. For whatever reason, in a golden opportunity for north Andhra, the state government announced three capitals, and one of them is Visakhapatnam as the executive capital. We strongly believe the executive capital at Visakhapatnam would cater to the development of the entire north Andhra in a  radius of up to at least 200 km,” Rai told South First.

“We are not against any region or area in the state. The government had announced the legislative capital at Amaravati and the judiciary capital at Kurnool, and those areas will also equally develop with such a plan,” he added.

Rai, after he decided to get into the movement for three capitals, resigned as a special officer to the tribal varsity sanctioned by the Central government at Vizianagaram.

He also told South First that the JAC had representatives from all walks of life, and also extended invites to all the political parties to support its cause.

However, so far only the YSRCP had extended support to its efforts.

“Local leaders cutting across party lines should take part in the movement. We have invited all the parties and leaders,” Rai said.

The JAC meeting. (Supplied)

The committee has representatives like advocates, those from the teaching community, students, and individuals from other professions.

The JAC now plans to hold round-table conferences, street meetings, other mass outreach or contact programmes, and even bike rallies as part of the action plan.

The JAC’s efforts are in addition to the independent efforts of the ruling YSRCP in support of three capitals.

YSRCP MLA resignation sparks slugfest

Even as the JAC for three capitals was formed, a political slugfest took place between the YSRCP and Opposition parties like the TDP and the BJP as a ruling-party MLA tendered his resignation in support of the three-capital plan.

The YSRCP’s Chodavaram MLA Karanam Dharma Sri handed over his letter of resignation as MLA, addressed to the Assembly speaker, to the JAC convenor, Rai, in support of the three-capital plan.

However, he laid down the condition that TDP state unit chief K Atchennaidu should also resign as MLA.  Atchennaidu represents the Tekkali Assembly segment in the Srikakulam district.

Following Dharma Sri’s resignation, another ruling party MLA — former minister Muttamsetty Srinivas Rao, from Bheemili — announced he was ready to resign for the cause of Visakhapatnam as executive capital.

Road and Buildings Minister and five-time MLA Dharmana  Prasad Rao also said he was ready to resign if YSRCP supremo YS Jagan Mohan Reddy approved his proposal.

However, the  TDP brushed aside the resignation by MLA Dharma Sri as mere drama, as the resignation was not in the correct format. It said it was all just empty posturing.

రాజధాని అమరావతి పై, రైతుల పాదయాత్రపై వేయి పడగలతో విషం కక్కుతోంది వైసీపీ. ఇప్పుడు ఇదిగో రాజీనామా పేరిట డ్రామాలు మొదలెట్టింది. (1/2) pic.twitter.com/ufsyB0b1nn

— Telugu Desam Party (@JaiTDP) October 8, 2022

TDP politburo member and former minister Nakka Ananda Babu said that Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy was deliberately adopting destructive politics and taking repressive measures on farmers as he had come to the conclusion that he could no longer develop Amaravati — once tipped to be the sole capital of the state.

Ananda Babu told reporters at the TDP headquarters that Reddy, who welcomed Amaravati as the capital, changed his mind after coming to power and was spewing venom at farmers in the area.

He was unable to digest the tremendous response to the padayatra undertaken by the Amaravati farmers, and thus Jagan was now talking about decentralisation, Ananda Babu said.

BJP state general secretary S Vishnuvardhan Reddy also dubbed resignations — or offers thereof — by the YSRCP leaders as drama and a sign of lack of commitment towards the overall development of the state.