Vijayawada: The state will soon witness a paradigm shift in governance with Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy deciding to prioritise development and attracting investments after successfully launching and stabilising welfare schemes in the first two years of his tenure.
As part of this multi-pronged strategy, the Chief Minister, sources close to him told Deccan Chronicle, decided to not object to holding of even mandal, zilla parishad and municipal polls before the end of State Election Commissioner N. Ramesh Kumar’s stint in March. “He wants to finish the political activity by facilitating all polls in the next one or two months and focus fully on propelling growth by taking advantage of the post-Covid economic initiatives of the Centre,” sources said.
The government is said to have conveyed its decision to cooperate with the SEC on conduct of elections in the last two meetings held between the SEC and Chief Secretary Adityanath Das and Director General of Police Gautham Sawang. Sources said the government had earlier chalked out a plan to attempt to prevent the SEC from going ahead with the polls to zilla parishad and urban bodies but the Chief Minister negated it.
Overwhelming support from people as reflected in YSR Congress-backed candidates sweeping the gram panchayat polls also came in handy for changing the strategy, sources added. The Chief Minister, according to sources, strongly believes that the state would go to the polls only in 2024 as the combined election proposal of the Centre may not materialise in the immediate future.
The Chief Minister also directed the officials to relaunch construction activity in Amaravati as per the recommendations of the nine-member committee at the earliest and create civic infrastructure to attract investments into the region. “We will approach the court with a clear plan on protecting the interests of farmers who gave their lands for the capital and urge it to vacate the status quo on the crucial three capitals Bill that would facilitate the shifting of executive capital to Visakhapatnam,” said sources.
Jagan Mohan Reddy is said to have expressed his resolve to focus on attracting investments to the state and make use of the financial assistance promised by the Centre for capital-intensive projects. The government will propose pharma, marine, IT and industrial clusters to attract investors.
