Jagan finally reaches capital

Vijayawada: It took two years for the Leader of Opposition Y S Jaganmohan Reddy to ‘reach’ the new capital. He is scheduled to address the party’s extended general body meeting in the city on Tuesday. Perhaps it is for the first time that the YSRCP chief is holding his party meeting in the State, away from the common capital, Hyderabad.

Though Jagan had planned to have his house and the party headquarters in the new capital by March this year, it did not materialise for reasons known to the party insiders.

• The YSRCP chief will address the party’s extended general body meeting in the city today
• Sources say the meeting is likely to discuss defections and capital city issues

Interestingly, the leaders have zeroed in on Tadepalli village as the right place for Jagan to have his house and party office as well. The local leaders have identified four plots in the village and expected that he would finalise one of them. However, he has not made up his mind till date to shift to the new capital.

Jagan has been conducting his political activity with headquarters in Hyderabad, while Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has moved out of the common capital a year-and-a-half ago.

With the government deciding on shifting the Secretariat to the new capital by June 27 and holding the next Assembly session here, the Leader of the Opposition had to think of moving out of Hyderabad to Amaravati.

Even the ruling Telugu Desam is shifting its headquarters to the capital region, with a proposal to set up its headquarters in Guntur. The BJP and the two Left parties have already relocated their State headquarters to Vijayawada, and have started their State-level activities from the new capital. At least now, the YSRCP is moving to the new capital, after two years following State bifurcation.

“We have time for 10 years. Hyderabad is the common capital, and we have all the resources there which we have to utilise. It is for this reason, our party headquarters will remain in Hyderabad,” said the party legislator from Mangalagiri, Alla Ramakrishna Reddy.

However, he said that the Chief Minister had moved out of the common capital due to political reasons forcing every other party to move out. “The government had proposed to hold Assembly sessions in the new capital area and as Leader of Opposition Jaganmohan Reddy has to come here now,” Ramakrishna Reddy added.

Meanwhile, party sources said that the extended general body meeting of the party is likely to discuss several issues with defections and capital city issues. The party assigned the topics to various senior leaders, MPs, MLAs and former ministers to speak at the meeting.

The defections that have rocked the party in the recent time with 19 legislators leaving the party and joining the ruling party is said to be the core issue for discussion at the meeting. The meeting also likely to deliberate on the possible defections in future from the party as being claimed by the TDP and is set to take precautions to contain the leaders quitting the party.

Another core issue that is set to come up for discussion at the meeting is the land pooling for the capital city, the promises made to the farmers and the farm labourers on compensation and the road widening taken up by the government in the existing villages.
The Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA) had already served eviction notices on the families of Penumaka, Undavalli and Yerrabalem villages.

According to sources, 70 to 80 houses in each of these villages are set for eviction for the road widening project. Interestingly, these three villages have been opposing the land pooling for the capital right from the day one and have filed cases in the High Court against pooling.

With the government now proposing to acquire houses for road widening, hundreds of families who have been living there for more than 40 years are set to be rendered homeless. The YSR Congress has taken up this issue and is set to evolve a strategy to fight and protect these families at this meeting.

By:D Gopi