Jagan springs a surprise by strongly reacting against HC order on Amaravati

Vijayawada/Visakhapatnam While Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy sprang a surprise by taking serious exception to the AP High Court's recent order to retain Amaravati as the State capital, Leader of Opposition and former Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu has challenged his bete noire to seek midterm elections over the capital issue.

"If he (Jagan) has guts, let him seek midterm polls over trifurcation proposal instead of setting a bad precedent by criticising the authority of the High Court to safeguard the principles of law," Naidu told the media after the Chief Minister described as 'impossible' the court's order to complete the development of capital at Amaravati within six months. The court turned down the proposal for trifurcation of the capital by making Amaravati the legislative capital, Visakhapatnam executive capital and Kurnool the executive capital.

Other Opposition parties and the farmers of Amaravati-Guntur-Vijayawada area had hailed the judgement of High Court rejecting the three capital idea amid speculation that the YSRCP Government might approach the Supreme Court challenging HC order, which came in response to a batch of petitions filed by the Amaravati farmers.

The Chief Minister during a heated discussion on decentralisation in the Assembly on Thursday evening said the Legislature was competent to enact laws and take crucial decisions and expressed his pain and anguish over the judgement given by the High Court. It may be recalled that the YSRCP Government courted a big controversy in October, 2020 by submitting a letter to the then Chief Justice of Supreme Court against the conduct of a senior judge of the apex court in trying to influence the judges of the High Court in giving certain pro-TDP orders.

The Chief Minister stated in the Assembly that in a democracy each institution like judiciary, and legislature has its supremacy and independence as per the Constitution and one should not meddle into the jurisdiction of another independent institute.

The YSRCP leaders including Minister for Municipal Administration Botcha Satyanarayana later said the State Judiciary should maintain its neutrality while reiterating that they have high regards to the judicial institutions. The Minister said they are committed to go ahead with forming three capitals as part of a decision to encourage decentralisation.

The Opposition parties like BJP, CPI and CPI (M) wondered why the YSRCP did not oppose the decision to form the capital at Amaravati by acquiring 33,000 acres in the Assembly or outside when Jagan Mohan Reddy was the Leader of the Opposition during the tenure of TDP after bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh into two States following separate Telangana agitation spearheaded by Telangana Rashtra Samiti led by K. Chandrasekhara Rao.

BJP State president Somu Veeraju found fault with the Chief Minister for going back on his support to forming capital at Amaravati during TDP rule after getting elected to power under the alibi of ensuring decentralisation