The decision of Andhra Pradesh state legislative council chairman Mohd Ahmed Sharif to refer the two bills related to state capital might be a setback for YSR Congress party government headed by chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, but it is just temporary.
Since the two bills – AP Capital Region Development Authority Repeal Bill and Decentralisation of Administration Bill – were already passed in the state assembly, the government has nothing to worry.
The select committee might take three or four months to give its report; but it will only delay the capital shift but cannot stop it.
So, strictly speaking, there is nothing for the government to lose except time. In the meantime, Jagan still has a lot of options – proroguing the assembly and council and promulgate an ordinance; or abolish the legislative council altogether, etc.
There is also a talk that since the assembly has already passed a resolution on the capital shift, the government can immediately start the exercise of shifting some of the offices to Visakhapatnam without actually creating three capitals.
It is nothing but natural that the Telugu media, which is already divided on political lines, present their own versions on what exactly had happened in the legislative council on Wednesday.
Since the proceedings were not telecast live, the common people could not watch the happenings in the council and form their own opinion.
Expectedly, Eenadu and Andhra Jyothy described the development as a “setback” to the government, while Sakshi sought to project it is a “big blunder” on the part of the legislative council chairman to take the decision to refer the bills to the select committee using his discretionary powers.
The Sakshi report pointed out that the chairman himself has admitted that there is a lapse on his part to accept the notice for seeking select committee since no motion to that effect had been moved. But TDP floor leader in the council Yanamala Ramakrishnudu said under Rule 154, the chairman has all the powers to take any such decision.
Among the pro-TDP papers, Eenadu at least tried to present a balanced picture of the whole scenario. It even carried the statement of YSRC ministers describing it as a Black Day in democracy, which was also highlighted by Sakshi.
At the same time, Eenadu also highlighted the victory celebrations in Amaravati, where villagers showered petals on Naidu.
However, Andhra Jyothy went a little overboard, projecting the alleged highhanded behavior of the YSRC members and ministers in the council towards the chairman. It also carried a speculative story on the government’s plans to abolish the council.
Both the pro-TDP papers also gave a lot of prominence to Jana Sena Party chief Pawan Kalyan’s visit to Delhi to meet the BJP leaders including newly elected president of BJP J P Nadda.
The plan of BJP-Jana Sena combine to take out a long march from Tadepalli to Vijayawada on February 2 also got huge coverage in these two dailies.
The formation of a separate constitutional bench by the state high court to take up the cases of Amaravati farmers against the capital shift and the state government’s decision to hire senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi at a fee of Rs 5 crore were also given wide coverage in the pro-TDP media.
However, Sakshi ignored the same, but carried a big report on the state government’s decision to order a comprehensive investigation into the insider trading in Amaravati.