Photo: The Rayalaseema United Front held a Million March in Kurnool yesterday demanding capital city status for Kurnool.
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Even as the Seemandhra print and electronic media is desperately trying to hush up, the competition between various cities in Seemandhra, to become the capital city of residual AP, is hotting up.
At least 7 cities in Seemandhra are now competing with each other in this race. Vijayawada looks like the front runner in this race. But strong competition is emerging from Visakhapatnam, Guntur, Ongole and Kurnool.
Cabinet Minister Pallam Raju is leaving no stone unturned to get capital status for Visakhapatnam.
Congress MP Rayapati Sambashiva Rao is demanding that Guntur get the coveted status. While Ongole looks like the preferred choice of several Congress top bosses.
Seemandhra leaders, who were active in the Samaikyandhra protests, silently bought thousands of acres of land in and around Ongole town.
Some leaders are also bringing up names of Macherla in Guntur and Tirupathi in Chittoor districts.
Leaders from Kurnool have long been demanding that their town, which was the original capital city of Andhra state, should be reinstated as the capital.
A “Million March” was also held by students in Kurnool town yesterday, demanding capital city status.
The scenario in Seemandhra looks comically similar to 1953, when several leaders fought for months together to decide their capital city. What’s ironic is that, except Macherla & Ongole, the same towns were competing to become capital city of Andhra state in 1953 too!