The Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2026 was introduced and passed in the Lok Sabha Wednesday, officially recognising Amaravati as the capital of the state.
A resolution for the same was passed in the Andhra Pradesh Assembly on March 28, paving the way for the Bill’s passage in the Lok Sabha.
What does the Bill say?
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, a major ally of the BJP, has said that the Bill will give statutory clarity to what the TDP-led NDA government in the state has been building toward — Amaravati as a permanent capital city.
In the special Assembly session on March 28, Naidu had said that legal certainty on the capital issue can be achieved only through suitable amendments to the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014.
Accordingly, the state Assembly had resolved to request the BJP-led central government to amend Section 5 of the Act by including the words “at Amaravati” in sub-section (2), and by expanding the explanation to clarify that Amaravati includes areas notified under the Andhra Pradesh Capital Region Development Authority Act, 2014.
Why was the Bill introduced?
The amended Bill seeks to make Amaravati the only capital of Andhra Pradesh and make it the state’s permanent capital. It is meant to avoid the “ambiguity” caused by the previous Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy-led YSRCP government, which proposed decentralised development and a three-capital formula – Amaravati as the legislative capital, Visakhapatnam as the administrative capital, and Kurnool as the judicial capital.
However, during his tenure between June 2019 to May 2024, Jagan did not make any move to create the separate capitals, leaving the state without a capital city. The capital city development that had taken place at Amaravati during the TDP’s rule from 2014 to 2019 was abandoned by the Jagan government and all the buildings were left at various stages of construction turning it into a ghost town.
What may be the political fallout of the move?
The ruling TDP-Jana Sena Party(JSP)-BJP alliance in Andhra is likely to make political gains from the move. JSP chief and Deputy CM K Pawan Kalyan and the BJP have backed Naidu strongly to pitch Amaravati as the permanent capital city.
The NDA will go to town highlighting that it is delivering what it has promised.
For Naidu, this marks the realisation of another major ambition. He has consistently maintained that when the TDP joined the NDA, there was an agreement that Andhra Pradesh would have Amaravati as its sole capital.
Drawing from his experience in transforming Cyberabad into a major IT hub, Naidu envisions building a world-class city in Andhra Pradesh that serves not only as the capital but also as a centre for top-tier infrastructure, IT, AI, and quantum technology, with minimal pollution. His goal is to create a city that fuels economic growth and generates employment.
Naidu is likely to leverage the passage of the Bill in Parliament to assert that the TDP acted in the “best interest” of the people of Andhra Pradesh, while targeting the YSRCP, which may find itself on the backfoot having delayed the development of a capital during its term.
What will Amaravati have?
After returning to power in 2024, Naidu vowed not only to complete the capital city but also expanded its scope and size, proposing an international airport and a major railway junction. The AP Capital Region Development Authority has commenced works worth over Rs 90,000 crore.
Over and above the 34,241 acres of land that was pooled from farmers, the government is acquiring another 30,000 acres through pooling to expand the capital region.
The greenfield Amaravati capital city as envisaged by Naidu was a 217 sq km region within which is the 16.9 sq kms seed capital where the secretariat, legislative complex, high court building, bungalows of senior IAS and IPS officers, HC judges, ministers, MLAs, and MLCs, and premium flats for All India Service (AIS) officers and senior officials are located in Velagapudi village.
In the larger Amaravati capital region, the Andhra government wants to establish nine theme cities – knowledge city, health city, electronics city, tourism city, justice city, media city, sports city, finance city, and government city known as Amaravati.
The actual capital region plan proposed by Naidu is a vast 7,420 sq km metropolitan area, covering Vijayawada city and surrounding areas, the districts of Guntur and Krishna, of which 217 sq km would mark the capital.