Andhra drops bill, defers 3-capital plan in view of local protests, legal challenges

The YSR Congress Party government in Andhra Pradesh on Monday repealed its own laws to create three capitals in a major about-face, giving in to farmer protests and legal challenges, and offering talks on the way forward.

Andhra Pradesh chief minister Jagan Mohan Reddy said his government would introduce a comprehensive Bill after consulting all stakeholders. His government was firm on making Amaravathi, Visakhapatnam and Kurnool as seats of legislature, executive and judiciary.

The repeal of the laws means Amaravati will be the working capital till the government makes a new law.


An urgent meeting of the Cabinet took the decision to drop trifurcation of the state capital which was quickly conveyed by advocate general S Sriram to the high court. A division bench headed by chief justice PK Mishra is hearing a batch of writ petitions from farmers who have raised legal challenges to the legislation. They wanted Amaravathi to be developed as the sole capital.

Senior advocate Shyam Divan, who appeared for farmers, informed the court that about 33,000 families in Amravati had given up their land for developing their place as the state capital, and they had now lost their means of livelihood.

He also said the powers to decide on a state capital vested with Parliament under Articles 3 & 4 of the Constitution, and only one place that houses legislature, executive and judiciary can be called the state capital.

State ministers explained that the move did not mean the government was going back entirely on its decision to have three capitals, but was buying time in view of the legal hurdles that have come in the way.

Before moving the Bill to repeal the laws, the chief minister informed the assembly that the government would soon come back with a comprehensive Bill, which would address the concerns of all sections of people.

While the previous TDP regime headed by N Chandrababu Naidu focused on developing Amaravati as the only state capital, the YSR Congress Party reversed that decision soon after coming to power in 2019. The chief minister said they decided in favour of trifurcation of the state capital as it would ensure decentralisation and justice to all three regions.