Stoking ‘public sentiments’ before polls? YSRCP leader wants Hyderabad to remain common capital

Stoking ‘public sentiments’ before polls? YSRCP leader wants Hyderabad to remain common capital

Hyderabad: Y.V. Subba Reddy, a leader of the ruling YSRCP in Andhra Pradesh, caused a stir Tuesday by seeking an extension of Hyderabad’s status as the shared capital of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana till the former’s executive capital shifts to Visakhapatnam from Amaravati.

The statement comes ahead of the general elections, as well as the April assembly elections in the state where the YSRCP will fight to retain power. The party has set a target of winning all 175 assembly seats this time. It had won 151 last time and 22 out of 25 Lok Sabha seats.

However, the Opposition in both states — Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Andhra, and the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and BJP in Telangana — dismissed the statement as “ridiculous” or a tactic to “manipulate public sentiments” prior to the elections.

During the bifurcation in 2014, given the strong claims over Hyderabad from both Seema-Andhra and Telangana leaders, the then Congress-led UPA-II government had designated the city as a common capital for 10 years under the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014. According to this, as of 2 June, 2024, Andhra would no longer have any claim over Hyderabad.

The common capital arrangement was also supposed to give Andhra leadership time to plan its capital set-up. “However, in these 10 years, the previous TDP government could only set up a temporary capital (at Amaravati). We (after coming to power in 2019) decided in favour of the already-developed Vizag as the executive capital instead of the unrealistic (greenfield, mega capital) Amaravati. But, we have been facing court cases opposing the move,” said Subba Reddy.

Subba Reddy, YSRCP’s regional coordinator of north Andhra Pradesh districts including Visakhapatnam, is an uncle of Chief Minister Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy, whose controversial plan to shift the capital to the port city has been pending for the past four years. Jagan has often spoken of his “administrative relocation to Vizag soon”, where a sea-facing CM camp office is receiving final touches on the scenic Rushikonda hill. The move itself, however, is pending as the matter is sub-judice.

“As we do not know when we could establish Vizag as the capital, the thought is Hyderabad should continue as the common capital till we cross all hurdles. We will discuss the matter with the CM after the elections,” said Subba Reddy.

The YSRCP would raise the matter in Parliament, added Subba Reddy, also a former Lok Sabha member and nominee for the Rajya Sabha election later this month.

YSRCP minister Ambati Rambabu reportedly supported the demand, but the party went into defensive mode Wednesday, with senior minister Botcha Satyanarayana saying people misconstrued Subba Reddy’s statement.

“Who will talk about matters already settled? The decision was to share Hyderabad for 10 years. If the Centre wants to reconsider, that’s up to it. We will keep pressing for our rightful claims, like special category status,” Botcha told reporters in Vizag Wednesday.

Jagan handed over Hyderabad assets in 2019

L.V. Subrahmanyam, former chief secretary to CM Jagan, said Subba Reddy’s statement “lacks sense or seriousness”. “What connection does AP have with Hyderabad now that the Centre should even consider such an extension?” he asked while speaking to ThePrint.

Under the state reorganisation Act, the Andhra government could have functioned from Hyderabad till 2024, but in mid-2016, then CM N. Chandrababu Naidu began the relocation to Amaravati, over 300 km away. Instead of sharing the secretariat, assembly and other government buildings with Telangana, his administration pooled nearly 33,000 acres of fertile farmland in Amaravati for building a “world-class mega capital”. PM Narendra Modi and then Telangana CM K. Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) attended the Amaravati foundation stone laying ceremony in October 2015.

The state-level employees expected to stay put in Hyderabad for a few more years. But soon Naidu ordered the abrupt relocation of over 20,000 employees of the Andhra secretariat and 89 departments into an under-construction building at Velagapudi and rented offices in and around Vijayawada.

Political experts widely attributed the move to the KCR establishment hounding Naidu in the 2015 cash-for-vote scandal during the legislative council poll. The Telangana government then fully occupied the common offices, and AP’s share of four blocks in the old secretariat complex in Hyderabad remained deserted. After Jagan took over from Naidu in mid-2019, the Telangana government received these blocks, too, on his orders.

KCR, the then Telangana CM, razed all eight blocks to the ground in the mid-2020s, and a newly inaugurated Telangana secretariat, built at a reported cost of over Rs 1,200 crore, now stands on the same spot.

“The AP Raj Bhavan, high court, and all the offices have shifted. Except for some premises like the landmark Lake View guest house and a few senior IAS officer quarters, there is nothing linked to the AP government here now,” Subrahmanyam told ThePrint.

“In such a setting, the YSRCP leader’s comments can be construed either as wild, erratic statements or a well-thought-out strategy to pinch the Congress government in Telangana to make them react or reject the claims,” the retired official said.

Leaders of other parties smell ‘conspiracy’

Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy, not known to be on friendly terms with Jagan, and his cabinet colleagues are yet to comment.

“The reports do not qualify for a reaction from our side, especially when the intentions are clear,” a CM’s aide in his office told ThePrint.

Other party leaders from both states spoke out, some saying Subba’s statement is motivated and some ridiculing it for lacking rationale.

“After three capitals within, does Jagan now want a fourth capital for Andhra outside it?” asked former BRS MP and Telangana planning board former vice-chairman Vinod Kumar.

Former minister Vemula Prashanth Reddy from BRS said the demand was “ridiculous and against the state reorganisation Act.”

Telangana BJP leaders suspected a conspiracy “combinedly hatched by the BRS and YSRCP chiefs to stoke regional sentiments before the polls for electoral gain”.

“Hyderabad has not been utilised as the common capital for the past several years. Demanding the status extension now appears to be for triggering public sentiments,” said BJP leader Eatala Rajender.

In Andhra Pradesh, the TDP accused Jagan and Subba Reddy of now coming up with the claim “to safeguard their benami assets in Hyderabad”.

“After amassing thousands of crores worth of ‘benami’ assets in the three AP regions in the name of decentralised development, three capitals, Jagan, Subba Reddy are now doing a new drama,” TDP state chief Atchannaidu Kinjarapu said in a press statement.

“Didn’t you realise Hyderabad was the common capital when you handed over the AP share of secretariat buildings, etc., to KCR in 2019?” asked Kinjarapu.

AP BJP spokesperson Lanka Dinakar accused Jagan of destroying Amaravati “while cheating people with announcements of executive and judiciary capitals at Vizag and Kurnool”.

“Those who advocated three capitals are now wanting to reclaim Hyderabad. This is nothing but fear of defeat in elections,” said Dinakar.

Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee chief and Jagan’s sister Y.S. Sharmila in a post on X Thursday said the state lacks a proper capital even after 10 years due to YSRCP’s incompetence. “Hyderabad as a common capital issue is the YSRCP’s trick to hide its failures and confuse the public as elections near,” she wrote.

(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)