Jagan: Amaravati 'will never be reality'

Former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy on Thursday claimed that Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu’s vision of Amaravati as the state capital will "never become a reality", and instead pitched the ‘Mavigun’ region as a viable alternative.

Stating that Amaravati as the state capital is not practical, he remarked that one, two or even three decades later, Andhra Pradesh will be without a state capital.

“What Chandrababu is conceiving will never be a reality. You know that. I know that. Anybody with reasonable common sense would agree to that,” the YSR Congress Party president told a press conference at the party office at Tadepalli.

Jagan Mohan Reddy reiterated that ‘Mavigun’ (Machilipatnam, Vijayawada and Guntur) will be an ideal region as the state capital.

“Mavigun is something which is already in existence. Day one itself, you will have a certain level of city in place with all infrastructure, be it a port in Machilipatnam, be it an international airport in Vijayawada, be it four national highways, three railway stations, nine medical colleges and educational institutions,” he said.

The former Chief Minister stated that in Mavigun, there is nothing that the government requires to spend, except for improving connectivity.

“At the best, in a period of five to seven years, you can spend 10 per cent of whatever you are talking about in Amaravati,” he said, adding that Rs 15,000 crore to Rs 20,000 crore will suffice over a period of 5-7 years.

“Accept Mavigun rather than constructing buildings there. Shift them over here. The moment you declare Mavigun as a capital, it comes into existence. There, even after one, two or three decades, you would find yourself in a situation where Andhra Pradesh has no capital.”

Jagan remarked that Mavigun has become the cause of Chandrababu Naidu's rising blood pressure. “The Mavigun initiative we proposed has garnered widespread public support. Unable to provide answers or cope with this reality, Chandrababu Naidu is suffering from rising blood pressure out of sheer frustration,” he said.

The YSRCP leader also flagged what he called the exorbitant cost of developing infrastructure in Amaravati. He said former Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao constructed the Telangana Secretariat, and about Rs 615 crore was spent on this structure, which spans nearly 10 lakh square feet.

“However, the cost of our Secretariat -- comprising just five buildings -- has already exceeded Rs 10,665 crore. Whenever one questions this blatant looting, Chandrababu's blood pressure shoots up,” he said.

Jagan said Chandrababu Naidu was now talking about another Assembly building and a brand-new High Court.

He alleged that the very same companies to which Chandrababu Naidu awarded contracts before 2019 were once again awarded those works in 2024 after the original tenders had been cancelled and re-tendered.

Jagan claimed that the Chief Minister handed over these tenders through a tailor-made and rigged process.

The YSRCP leader also slammed Chandrababu Naidu for calling YSRCP ‘Goddila party’ (Axe party) and accusing it of practising politics of murder.

Jagan gave details of the YSRCP leaders and workers allegedly killed by TDP men since the coalition government came to power in 2024. He alleged that it was the TDP which resorted to the politics of murder.

He said his grandfather, Raja Reddy, father of Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy (YSR) and uncle Y.S. Vivekananda Reddy, was killed. “Who killed my grandfather, Raja Reddy. Were they not TDP men?” he asked and alleged that the killers were sheltered in the TDP headquarters in Hyderabad.

Jagan said that during the Assembly session, Chandrababu Naidu had told his father, YSR, “I'll see how you come to the assembly", and within two or three days, YSR's helicopter crashed under suspicious circumstances.