Chandrababu Naidu announces Amaravati as sole capital of Andhra Pradesh

THERE won’t be three capitals of Andhra Pradesh, but one, said TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu, a day before his swearing-in as the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh. Naidu said that Amaravati would be the sole capital of the state. 

“In our government, there will be no games under the guise of three capitals. Our capital is Amaravati. Amaravati is the capital,” asserted Naidu, during a joint meeting of TDP, BJP and Janasena legislators. Naidu was unanimously announced as the leader of the NDA bloc in Andhra Pradesh. 

Naidu, as the first chief minister of the bifurcated Andhra Pradesh had floated the idea of Amaravati as the capital city. However, in 2019, he was defeated by YS Jagan Mohan Reddy-led YSRCP, who won with a landslide victory. 

Reddy had his own plans and proposed the theory of the three capitals to ensure equitable development. But again, with Reddy’s ousting in the 2024 assembly elections in the state, Naidu has decided to name Amaravati as the sole capital. 

N Chandrababu Naidu.

After the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh in 2014, Hyderabad was designated as the shared capital for Telangana and Andhra Pradesh for 10 years. Hyderabad ceased to be Andhra Pradesh’s capital on June 2.

Naidu, in this earlier stint as chief minister, planned to build Amaravati as a greenfield capital with an investment exceeding Rs 50,000 crore. In 2016, he announced his plans for nine theme cities and 27 townships in the capital.

The World Bank and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank also pledged $300 million and $200 million, respectively but things went sideways after the Naidu government was toppled by Reddy. 

TDP came back to power, along with BJP and Janasena, with a thumping majority in the recently concluded simultaneous Lok Sabha and assembly elections in the state with a brute majority of 164 assembly and 21 Lok Sabha seats.