The lower house of Parliament passed the Andhra Pradesh Reorganization (Amendment) Bill, 2026, on Wednesday, which seeks to recognize Amaravati as the sole capital of the state with support from both the treasury and opposition benches.
However, the bill faced opposition from the YSR Congress party in Lok Sabha, which also held a protest march when the bill was passed.
Having become law, Amaravati will be recognized as the sole and permanent capital of Andhra Pradesh from June 2, 2024, with no further attempt to change the decision possible. The bill was approved through a voice note in the Lok Sabha.
With the fulfillment of Telugu Desam Party leader and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu’s dream of making Amaravati the sole capital of the state, this ambition carries an important history and a big step towards the future of the state.
What is the importance of Amaravati as the capital of Andhra state?
Since Andhra split into two states with the formation of Telangana in 2014, the state has been vying for a permanent and stable capital, which has remained a bone of contention for nearly a decade.
As per the provisions of Section 5 of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganization Act, 2014, Hyderabad has been designated as the joint capital of the two states for a period not exceeding 10 years, after which Hyderabad will remain the capital of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh will be the new capital. However, the law did not explicitly name this as capital.
Naidu became the first Chief Minister of the bifurcated state of Andhra Pradesh and pledged to make Amaravati the capital of the state. In one of the major projects, Naidu acquired land of about 30,000 acres to build the capital through land pooling. However, the project faced a major setback when Naidu lost in 2019 to the YSRCP and Jagan Reddy became the chief minister of the state.
Under his leadership, Reddy scrapped the Amaravati capital project and proposed making three state capitals – Visakhapatnam as the administrative capital, Amaravati as the legislative capital, and Kurnool as the judicial capital under the Andhra Pradesh Capital Region Development Authority Abolition Act, 2020.
However, things took a turn again in 2024 when Naidu returned to power in the state, especially after spending 14 days in judicial custody in connection with the alleged multi-crore corruption case.
On his return, Naidu recalled his attempt to make Amaravati the sole capital and said: “In our government, there will be no games under the guise of the three capitals. Our capital is Amaravati. Amaravati is the capital.”
Now under the new amendment bill passed in the Lok Sabha today, the aim is to clarify any ambiguity about the capital of Andhra Pradesh under the Central Act.
“If passed by Parliament, the amendment will represent a major legislative step in strengthening Amaravati’s status as the sole capital of Andhra Pradesh,” an official statement said.
