Conduct referendum on the three capitals, Naidu to CM

In Andhra Pradesh the opposition Telugu Desam Party chief N Chandrababu Naidu  challenged the YS Jagan Mohan Reddy government to conduct a referendum on the three capitals for the state plan and vowed to quit politics if people voted for it.He demanded that the Chief Minister apologise to the people and withdraw the move to relocate the state capital in deference to the wishes of six crore people of the state. Naidu addressed a  rally to mark the first anniversary of the farmers struggle for retaining Amaravati as the state capital. He called the YSRC chief "one time Chief Minister", saying that the latter will "bite the dust at the hustings next time."

It was on this day last year that the Chief Minister came up with the idea of having three capitals for the state, on the lines of executive system of functioning from South Africa. Subsequently, his government passed a legislation naming Visakhapatnam as the Executive Capital and Kurnool as the Judicial Capital while retaining Amaravati as the Legislative Capital. The matter is now sub-judice as the farmers who had given up over 33,000 acres of their fertile lands for the development of Amaravati city, moved the Andhra Pradesh High Court opposing the relocation of the state capital.

Since December last year, the local farmers, with the support of political parties and other organisations, have been conducting a peaceful agitation demanding that Amaravati be retained as the state capital. "Barring the ruling YSR Congress, all political parties and people organisations extended support to the agitation and took part in the rally that was held amid severe restrictions by the police.