Amaravati, 11 June

A day before his swearing-in as the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu on Tuesday announced that Amaravati will be the sole capital of the state.

Naidu made this announcement, addressing a joint meeting of TDP, BJP and Janasena legislators, where he was unanimously elected as NDA leader in the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly. “In our government, there will be no games under the guise of three capitals. Our capital is Amaravati. Amaravati is the capital,” asserted Naidu.

As the first chief minister of bifurcated Andhra Pradesh between 2014 and 2019, he had floated the idea of Amaravati as the capital city. However, this brainchild of Naidu suffered a setback in 2019 when the TDP lost power and YS Jagan Mohan Reddy-led YSRCP won a landslide victory.

Reddy poured cold water on the Amaravati capital city plans and propounded a new theory of three capitals, which Naidu has now replaced with the decision to have a single capital.

The NDA alliance of TDP, BJP and Janasena won a landslide victory 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. The triumph has breathed new life into the Amaravati capital city project.