VIJAYAWADA: Amid the capital controversy in Andhra Pradesh, the one question that has gone unanswered till now is whether the state government has kept the Central government in the loop over its proposal to decentralise administration and have three capitals for the State.
However, reliable sources confirmed to TNIE that Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy briefed both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah more than once on his government's intention to go in for distributed development and expert recommendations to create three capitals - executive in Visakhapatnam, judicial in Kurnool and Legislative in Amaravati.
The Prime Minister and the Home Minister, it appears, concurred with him.
BJP official spokesperson and Rajya Sabha member GVL Narasimha Rao had indicated as much in his first reaction issued immediately after the Chief Minister first mooted the three-capital proposal in the State Assembly last month.
Quoting extensively from the Sivaramakrishnan Committee's report, Narasimha Rao had said, "The expert committee, appointed by the Central government in 2014 recommended against a greenfield capital city for Andhra Pradesh but Chandrababu Naidu went by his expert's (the then municipal administration minister P Narayana) opinion and he appointed the Narayana committee and decided to build a greenfield capital city, Amaravati, based on its recommendation."
He went on to point out how Seemandhra had lost out because of concentration of everything in Hyderabad by successive TDP and Congress governments in the past and significantly, welcomed the State government's proposal to decentralise the administration.
"Jagan is now taking the cue from the Sivaramakrishnan Committee report. I advise the State government to examine the report... BJP will welcome it if decentralisation is done," he had said in unambiguous terms.
Later, when the State BJP leaders began contradicting the party line, claiming that the Central government will not be a mute spectator, he clarified in his position as the official spokesperson of the party that the capital issue is not within the purview of the Centre.
"Whatever the State BJP leaders say must be considered as their personal opinion. The BJP's official policy is that the Centre will not and cannot interfere," he asserted, adding that if the State
government takes the issue to the Centre's notice the latter may offer advice.
Against this backdrop, BJP MP YS Chowdary's comments in New Delhi on Saturday that the Centre will not be a mute spectator if the State government presses ahead with three capitals could only be construed as his personal opinion.
The BJP's Rayalaseema Declaration announced in Feb 2018 had in fact demanded that the High Court be set up in Rayalaseema. Not only that, it also demanded a second capital in Rayalaseema, which is contrary to the demands of Chowdary and some of his colleagues.
Yet another sign of the Centre's thinking came last week when Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan visited Delhi to meet the Central BJP leadership. On the eve of his visit, he had appealed to the Centre to convene an all-party meeting on Amaravati and three capitals proposal. However, after his visit, he sealed an alliance with the BJP while keeping mum on his earlier demand.