In a bid to thwart an agitation by Amaravati farmers and the TDP, the YSR Congress Party is keen to turn the huge rally slated for tomorrow at Visakhapatnam into a massive show of strength and support for its plan of three capitals for Andhra Pradesh.

The rally, ostensibly planned by a non political Joint Action Committee (JAC) to support Vizag as the state’s executive capital is, in fact, entirely a YSRCP show with party leaders making preparations to bring 5,000 people from each of the seven assembly constituencies in Visakhapatnam.

YSRCP leader and Tirumala Tirupathi Devasthanam (TTD) chairman YV Subba Reddy, on Friday, gave a call to make the rally “Visakha Garjana” a success. He slammed the opposition, particularly TDP, for misleading the public by accusing the YSRCP of stalling development in Amaravati.

“That is the impression these Opposition parties are trying to give and misguide the people saying that our government is against the development of Amaravati. We are committed to developing Amaravati as legislative capital and at the same time develop Vizag as administrative capital because Vizag in all angles is a developed city and we need not invest a single rupee for its development,” said Mr Subba Reddy.

He added that decentralisation was the wish of the Andhra Pradesh people and the government was committed to that.

Organisers are expecting that there would be more than one lakh participants in the rally which will begin from the Ambedkar Statue and end on the Beach Road near the statue of former chief minister YS Rajasekhar Reddy.

It may be pointed out that the Andhra Pradesh High Court has already shot down the three-capital plan of the state government ruling that the State Legislative Assembly did not have powers to divide or shift the capital. It also directed the state government to develop Amaravati as capital within six months.

However, the state government filed a plea in the Supreme Court last month to vacate the High Court’s order. Politically, the YSRCP has also decided to make the three capital plans the poll plank for the state elections in 2024.

Tomorrow’s Visakha Garjana is not only aimed at showcasing the popular support for its plan to make Vizag the state capital but also thwart the Amaravati farmers who are currently on a mahapadayatra demanding that Amaravati should be retained as state capital as well as developed as planned by the TDP regime.