NEW DELHI: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy on Tuesday announced that the coastal city of Visakhapatnam will be the new capital of the state. CM Jagan made the announcement while speaking at the International Diplomatic Alliance Meet in New Delhi. “I am here to invite you to Visakhapatnam, which will be our capital. I will also be shifting to Vizag,” the CM said. CM Jagan Mohan Reddy also said, “I invite you and your colleagues to see for yourself how easy it is to do business in Andhra Pradesh.”
#WATCH | “Here I am to invite you to Visakhapatnam which will be our capital in the days to come. I will also be shifting to Visakhapatnam in the months to come”: Andhra Pradesh CM YS Jagan Mohan Reddy at International Diplomatic Alliance meet in Delhi pic.twitter.com/wANqgXC1yP
— ANI (@ANI) January 31, 2023
It may be recalled that after Telangana was carved out of Andhra Pradesh in 2014, Hyderabad was made the capital of the newly carved state. The Andhra government in 2015 led by TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu, which operated out of Hyderabad in the interim, later declared that Amaravati, falling in the Vijayawada-Guntu region on the banks of the river Krishna, would be the new state capital.
However, in 2020, the state came up with the idea of three capital cities – Amaravati, Visakhapatnam and Kurnool. That legislation was later withdrawn and Amaravati formally remained the capital.
Meanwhile, Amaravati was also at the center of an alleged land scam and Jagan Reddy’s party YSRCP demanded a probe against the previous chief minister Chandrababu Naidu.