Prime Minister Narendra Modi is slated to visit Visakhapatnam on November 11, to lay foundation stones and inaugurate various developmental and infrastructure projects of the Union government including the Rs 400 crore worth modernisation project of the Visakhapatnam railway station. His final itinerary has not been fully disclosed but the state government also wants to use this opportunity to invite the Prime Minister to lay the foundation stones for the Bhogapuram airport and the new central tribal university and district administration has been asked to expedite the process of procuring land for the two projects. Apart from government projects the Prime Minister is also likely to address a public meeting at the Andhra University grounds in the port city which is crucial to the ruling BJP because of the presence of a large chunk of urban population among whom the Prime Minister is quite popular. BJP had won the Vizag seat in 2014 with alliance with TDP but lost it in 2019 while fighting alone after TDP left the NDA.

This is the Prime Minister’s second visit to Andhra Pradesh this year. In June Modi had visited Bhimavaram to attend the 125 th birth anniversary celebrations of revolutionary freedom fighter Alluri Sitarama Raju.

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The Prime Minister’s Vizag visit comes at a time when there is great political turmoil in the state over chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy’s decision to have three separate capitals including Vizag as the administrative capital. So far the Centre has left the matter to the state government but state BJP is supporting the cause of Amaravati as a greenfield capital. Moreover, there has been subtle suggestions from BJP’s ally Pawan Kalyan that all Opposition parties including BJP and TDP should come together to fight against the YS Jagan Mohan Reddy government which is being purported as an anti democratic one. So far BJP has not been amenable to the suggestion that TDP should be allowed to join the Opposition alliance. The BJP has also been wooing a number of silver screen Telugu stars such as Chiranjeevi and NTR junior and it would be interesting to see which of them would grace the stage with the Prime Minister. Governor Biswabhushan Harichandan and chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy will accompany the Prime Minister for his official programmes.