Is Chandrababu Naidu playing the caste card to choose new capital?

Hyderabad: Is Chandrababu Naidu playing the caste card subtly while taking a call on the new capital of Andhra Pradesh? There are indications that considerations of location and accessibility may not be prime factors in deciding the capital. With leaders of different parts of the state accusing Naidu of trying to favour members of his own caste, a political storm is brewing over the issue. [caption id=“attachment_1557321” align=“alignnone” width=“380”]  Andhra Pradesh CM Chandrababu Naidu. IBNLive[/caption] On Sunday, senior Congress leader Botcha Satyanarayana charged the TDP government with trying to ‘benefit the ruling community of the party’ and real estate players. A similar charge was made by Congress leader in the State Legislative Council C Ramachandraiah earlier. Even YSR Congress MLA from Kurnool, SV Mohan Reddy, too has alleged that the TDP leadership is trying to benefit one caste group by proposing to establish the state capital between Guntur and Vijayawada. Land in the much-touted Vijayawada-Guntur-Tenali-Mangalagiri Urban Development Authority (VGTM-UDA) is owned mostly by the rich and influential Kamma community to which the Chief Minister Naidu belongs. Naidu, however, is unfazed by the criticism. He is hell-bent on locating the new capital in the VGTM region. He has been arguing that human habitations and active life are essential in and around a state capital for it to thrive and prosper. He has also been insisting that the capital should be in a politically strategic place and it should be centrally located. Snubbing his own cabinet colleagues, including Deputy Chief Minister KE Krishna Murthy who had voiced opposition to locating the new capital between Guntur and Vijayawada, he has asked them to stop speaking about the capital. “If I were selfish, I could have located it in my native village or in Tirupati,” the chief minister has told his detractors. Multiple opinions, not necessarily in sync with Naidu’s line of thought, have been aired by the TDP ministers on umpteen occasions. Though Krishna Murthy on Sunday kowtowed to the rule that “the chief minister would take the final call” on the capital question, he did not hide his personal opinion, by talking about developing three mega cities of Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, and Tirupati. Meanwhile, an expert panel headed by Sivaramakrishnan, has submitted a 187-page report to the Union Home ministry, unequivocally opposing location of the state capital between Guntur and Vijayawada. While the government has the option to junk the report, it has given Naidu’s detractors a strong case. The committee has made numerous suggestions on the establishment of the capital and temporary location of some government offices, including the chief minister’s office. The report says it doesn’t require more than 500 acres to locate the secretariat, assembly and Raj Bhavan. But its idea of scattered development instead of developing one particular area in the lines of Hyderabad doesn’t seem to have many takers. The committee pegs the total cost of the comprehensive development of the state at a whopping Rs 4.49 lakh crore. The capital zone development alone at the current market prices is put at Rs 27,097 crore. The cash-strapped state government, which presented a staggering Rs 1.10 lakh crore budget recently, expects central grants to take care of part of the revenue deficit. The location of the capital has turned out to be a bone of contention not only within the TDP, but outside the party too. Though Naidu, surprisingly, could secure the support for Vijayawada from the leader of the Opposition in AP Assembly YS Jaganmohan Reddy, the latter put a rider to his “endorsement” saying that the government should consider a place where large expanse of government land is available.