Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Wednesday announced that he will shift base and start administering the state from Visakhapatnam, the executive capital of the state, from September this year.

After muddling through the capital issue for the past four years, Reddy had for the first time announced in January that he will be shifting to the port city soon.

It may be noted here that the Supreme Court has ordered a stay on the Andhra Pradesh High Court’s directive to develop erstwhile capital Amaravati within six months. The case is pending in the apex court.

However, with only a year remaining before the state goes to polls the chief minister is clearly not willing to wait any further on resolving the capital issue. Currently, the chief minister is based in Vijayawada.

The chief minister was today in Srikakulam to lay the foundation stone for Mulapeta Greenfield port and Budagatlapalem fishing harbour as well as Hiramandalam lift irrigation project.

Speaking at Naupada village of Santhabommali mandal Reddy announced that Vizag was acceptable as the executive capital to everyone.

“Visakhapatnam is the consensus choice of everyone in the state. As part of the decentralisation policy of the administration your son (Reddy) will be setting up his family in Visakhapatnam,” said the chief minister as the crowd cheered his announcement.

The TDP regime had chosen to develop Amaravati which was to be a greenfield capital after the bifurcation of the unified state, but post 2019 the YSRCP Government abandoned Amaravati citing lack of funds and decided to have three separate capitals –Vizag as executive capital, Mangalagiri as legislative capital and finally Kurnool as judicial capital for a balanced development of all three regions of the state.

The chief minister seems to have already gone into an election mode and announced the very first candidate of YSRCP for the 2024 polls for Tekkali Assembly constituency which is currently represented by TDP state chief K Atchannaidu who is also a trusted aide of TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu.

He introduced Duvvada Srinivas, currently a MLC, as the YSRCP candidate for Tekkali. He also slammed the TDP for ignoring the development of Srikakulam and said the projects initiated today will change the face of the district.

The Mulapeta Port, which has been a dream of the people of north Andhra, will give a fillip to trade and commerce and is expected to handle imports and exports of other states such as Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and south Odisha.

While the estimated cost for the project is around Rs 4,362 crore, the fishing harbour will be developed at the cost of Rs 360 crore and the irrigation project will be constructed at an estimated cost of Rs176 crore.