Bharatiya Janata Party. which has been looking for an opportunity to gain a strong footing in Andhra Pradesh, appears to have found one in the latest controversy over the proposed shifting of administrative capital from Amaravati to Visakhapatnam.
According to reliable sources, the Andhra Pradesh unit of BJP is planning to meet shortly and adopt a unanimous resolution urging the BJP national executive to support the demand for retention of Amaravati as the capital city of the state.
The party is also likely to send a delegation to Delhi under the leadership of BJP Andhra Pradesh unit in-charge Sunil Deodhar to submit a factual report on Amaravati and the “intentions” behind chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy’s proposal to form the three capitals for the state.
The party had been rejected by the people in the last elections for not granting the special category status to AP. It could not win even a single assembly and Lok Sabha seat and lost deposits in almost all the constituencies that it had contested.
Apparently, the BJP wants to regain the confidence of the people of Andhra by espousing the cause of Amaravati farmers, who are looking up to the Centre to intervene in the matter and stall the capital shift.
Though deciding the capital city is the state’s prerogative, the state BJP leadership is of the opinion that if Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP national president Amit Shah intervene and somehow force the Jagan government to keep the capital shift plan in abeyance, the party has a chance to get the public support in the coming years, sources said.