Capital row to Naidu’s pitch, Andhra witnesses a politically charged year

Hyderabad

The year 2022 was the most challenging year for YSR Congress party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy – politically and administratively.

As he entered the third year of his rule, an anti-incumbency atmosphere is palpable in the state as was evident from the response his political rivals – Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu and Jana Sena Party chief Pawan Kalyan -- have been receiving to their state-wide tours.

Yet, Jagan has been able to ensure that there are no hiccups in the implementation of welfare schemes without any hurdles, notwithstanding the financial crisis, so that his vote bank remains intact.

The year has also witnessed certain major political developments that is expected to lead to realignment of political forces in the state in the coming year. Both the TDP and Jana Sena have dropped enough hints that they might join hands to fight against the YSRCP in the next elections.

The Bharatiya Janata Party, which had been ignoring its alliance partner Jana Sena for the last two years, has woken up to build bridges with the latter so as to keep the TDP at bay. But the saffron party has not been able to take a clear political stand because of the friendly relations between the Jagan government in the state and Narendra Modi government at the Centre.

A state without capital

For the third consecutive year, Andhra Pradesh remained without a proper capital city. Though on record, Amaravati continues to be the capital city, Jagan has been reluctant to acknowledge the same and he continues to harp on his three capitals plan – with executive capital at Visakhapatnam, judicial capital at Kurnool and legislative capital at Amaravati.

Jagan, who tactically withdrew the legislation on three capitals in November 2021 because of certain legal loopholes in it and announced that he would bring in a more fool-proof legislation, received a big setback when the state high court on March 3 endorsed Amaravati as the only capital of the state.

The high court went to the extent of declaring that the state legislature has no legal competence to pass any legislation on the three capitals and even directed that the Jagan government complete the pending infrastructure works in Amaravati within six months and hand over the developed plots to the farmers who gave away their land for the capital within three months.

The Jagan government did not immediately challenge the high court verdict for strategic reasons but filed review petitions in the high court seeking more time to complete the works in Amaravati due to financial constraints.

Finally, in September, the Jagan government moved the Supreme Court challenging the high court verdict and got a partial relief in the form of removal of the time limit for the completion of works in Amaravati. The case pertaining to three capitals is still pending in the apex court.

And the stalemate on the capital issue still continues.

Amaravati vs three capitals

As the capital issue is caught in the legal wrangle, the farmers of Amaravati – supported by all the opposition parties including the TDP, Jana Sena and even Bharatiya Janata Party – had to witness a major counter attack from the ruling YSR Congress party.

The farmers, who took up “Nyayasthanam to Devasthanam” (abode of justice to abode of god) padayatra (foot march) to Tirupati in November 2021 to highlight their demand for retention of the capital city at Amaravati, started their second phase of padayatra from Amaravati to Arasavilli in Srikakulam in September 2022.

The Jagan government, which had by then moved the Supreme Court in support of three capitals, launched a counter-offensive against the farmers. It sought to kick up a capital sentiment in Visakhapatnam by organising a huge rally “Visakha Garjana” with thousands of people. The YSRCP declared that the rally by Amaravati farmers, sponsored by the TDP, was nothing short of invasion on the north-coastal Andhra to deprive them of development.

The YSRCP, which is spearheading a joint action committee in support of decentralisation, organised similar rallies in Tirupati and Kurnool, thereby seeking to mobilise huge public support for three capitals.

The YSRCP leaders and cadres created hurdles for the padayatra of Amaravati farmers all along their route, leading to tense moments. As the police refused permission for the yatra, the farmers had to move the high court which gave them conditional permission. Finally, they had to suspend their yatra midway and chose to go to Delhi to highlight their demand through demonstration.

Naidu’s belligerence, Pawan’s aggression

The year also witnessed resurgence of TDP president Chandrababu Naidu, who had witnessed a series of major setbacks in all the local body elections held in 2021, including in his own home turf Kuppam in Chittoor district, besides by-elections to Tirupati Lok Sabha seat and Badvel assembly seat.

Naidu, who shot into the headlines in November 2021 by breaking down before the media for being humiliated by the YSRCP leaders in the assembly, changed his strategy and took up a belligerent posture.

The TDP chief started his public outreach programmes like “Badude Badudu,” and “Idem Kharma Raasthraniki” etc. He has been drawing huge crowds to his meetings and getting tremendous response. The party’s biennial conclave Mahanadu, held in the last week of May, set the tone for Naidu’s statewide tours with various such programmes.

He has been aggressively attacking the Jagan government, explaining how the state is being ruined financially. He even warned that the state might turn into another Sri Lanka due to mishandling of the state financial position and mounting debts.

Jana Sena Party chief Pawan Kalyan, too, has become more active politically in 2022 with frequent visits to Andhra Pradesh, taking breaks from his film shootings. He has taken up the cause of tenant farmers, who had committed suicide due to distress and distributed ₹1 lakh to each of their families.

Similarly, the actor championed the cause of people whose houses were demolished at Ippatam village in Mangalagiri in Guntur district. On October 16, the Jana Sena chief was prevented from addressing his party workers at Visakhapatnam and confined to his hotel room for over 40 hours, following an attack on the convoy of YSRCP ministers at the airport.

After his return to Vijayawada a day later, the Jana Sena chief, who till then had been a political ally of the BJP, said he was running out of patience, as there had been no positive response from the saffron party. Within an hour, TDP chief Naidu met Pawan Kalyan, leading to the speculation that both the TDP and Jana Sena might forge an alliance ahead of the assembly elections in the state in 2024.

The BJP leaders, who had been taking Pawan’s support for granted, got alerted. In November, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who came to Visakhapatnam to launch various projects, had talks with the Jana Sena chief and tried to pacify him. He asked Pawan not to hurry with any alliances for now. Yet, Pawan declared that he would not allow a split in the anti-establishment vote in 2024 and will not rest till the Jagan government is pulled down.

Unrest among staff, volatile land and order

While Jagan continued to focus on implementing his welfare agenda by implementing new schemes like YSR Jagananna Saswatha Bhoo Hakku Bhoo Raksha and YSR EBC Nestam, ostensibly to consolidate his base among the voters, he has also faced with several other challenges like strike by the government employees and deteriorating law and order.

In the beginning of the year itself, Jagan had to face a strike threat from the government employees for the implementation of wage revision. The ‘Chalo Vijayawada’ rally demanding pay revision in which lakhs of employees took part, has virtually shaken the government.

Faced with a financial crisis, the Jagan government continued to dodge the pay revision. But finally, it was forced to announce the pay revision. Though it was not up to the expectation of the agitating employees, they withdrew the strike after Jagan increased the age of superannuation for all state government employees to 62 years from 60.

But law and order continued to be a tricky issue for the government, as a large number of violent incidents took place during the year. After Jagan inaugurated 13 new districts in April, taking the total number of districts to 26 under his ‘decentralization of governance’ concept, violence erupted in Amalapuram town after protesters set ablaze minister P Viswarup’s house over the renaming of the newly-created Konaseema district as the BR Ambedkar Konaseema district.

The arrest of a YSRC lawmaker Ananta Babu for allegedly murdering his car driver in May and the latest violence incidents at Macherla of Palnadu district, where the YSRC workers set ablaze the house of a TDP leader, reflect the failure of law and order in the state.

Jagan sets target 175

In spite of all these challenges, Jagan is exuding confidence that his party would retain power in 2024 elections. He has come out with the slogan: “Why not 175,” and has been telling his party leaders and cadres to strive for making a clean sweep in the next assembly elections, winning 175 out of 175 seats.

Though there are still one and a half years to go for the elections, Jagan has already begun his campaign to reach out to the people with his programmes like “Gadapa Gadapaku Prabhutvam” (government at his every doorstep), in which all his party MLAs and ministers are participating.

Every three months, he has been reviewing the programme based on which he is assessing the performance of his party leaders. He has been alerting them from time to time, if they fall short of his expectations.

He also conducted an OBC garjana in the first week of December, to attract the OBCs by explaining them his welfare schemes for them.

Senior journalist and political analyst Suresh Dharur said the sole objective of Jagan is to entice the voters with freebies and return to power for a second successive term in 2024. “It appears he strongly believes his welfare schemes would fetch him power again and therefore, he has been indulging in financial profligacy,” he said.

At the same time, Dharur said, Jagan has been ruthless in suppressing the opposition and crushing the agitations. “He has not hesitated even to create a regional divide in the name of three capitals. As he enters the election year in 2023, he is going to put up more aggressive posture against the opposition,” he added.