The YSR Congress has decided to push hard for party chief YS Jagan Mohan Reddy’s proposal to project the Machilipatnam-Vijayawada-Guntur (MAVIGON) corridor as an alternative capital model, despite the Centre’s legal approval of the state government’s proposal to designate Amaravati as the capital.
The Andhra Pradesh Reorganization (Amendment) Bill, 2026 was approved in Parliament in the first week of April.
Jagan raised the proposal at a press conference on April 1, when the House passed the bill.
Terming it as a “plan B” for the capital region, the YSRCP chief suggested that instead of limiting the capital to Amaravati, the government should consider declaring the 110-km-long urban corridor extending from Machilipatnam to Vijayawada and Guntur as the state capital region, and argued that such a model would open scope for economic and infrastructural growth in the long term.
The proposal reportedly caught YSRCP leaders by surprise. “We thought it was some kind of cynical attack on the Telugu Desam Party-led coalition government, which was seeking legal status for Amaravati. But we soon realized that he was serious about his new concept,” a YSRCP leader said, on condition of anonymity.
The ruling coalition leaders reportedly did not take Jagan’s proposal seriously. He was heavily trolled on social media after the initial proposal. “When he was in power, he aggressively sought three capitals for AP – the executive capital in Visakhapatnam, the judicial capital in Kurnool and the legislative capital in Amaravati – which the people rejected. Why did he not talk about the Machilipatnam-Vijayawada-Guntur corridor?” asked TDP spokesperson N Vijay Kumar.
“He seems to have gone mad. He is trying to confuse people with his crazy ideas like Mavigun,” Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu told reporters at the party office on Saturday, adding that developing Amaravati alone would be an appropriate response to Jagan.
However, over the past two days, Jagan and his party leaders have been seriously campaigning in support of the Mavegaon idea, indicating that the party will push the proposal seriously, if it is voted back to power again in 2029.
At the party meeting held in Tadepalli on Thursday, Jagan made it clear that the idea of ’Mafegun’ was not an unserious idea, adding that it was backed by strong arguments. “We have proposed to develop the 110 km Machilipatnam-Vijayawada-Guntur corridor into a capital city as it is close to a national highway, has a fully developed port and an international airport. It is an economical and feasible model and can be developed at a cost of just 10% of what is spent on Amaravati,” he said.
Naidu was accused of spending money on Amaravati only for bribes from contractors. “In order to prevent such corruption and protect the future of the state, we proposed the Maphegon project, which was well received by the people,” Jagan said.
Other YSRCP leaders have taken up the cause in the last three days. YSRCP state coordinator Sajala Ramakrishna Reddy on Friday asserted that Mavigun was a better alternative than Amaravati in all respects. “While Amaravati will take decades to develop into a capital, Mavegaon has all the facilities to serve as the capital with minimal investment,” he said on Friday.
Party leaders and cadres put up flex banners and posters near the party office at Tadepalli in Guntur with a new slogan “Ravali Jagan… Kavali Mavegun” (Come back, Jagan, come back, we want Mavegun) on the lines of “Ravali Jagan, Kavali Jagan”, which played a major role in building emotional and electoral momentum ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Even YSRCP social media activists started actively spreading the Mavigun concept on all forms of social media, while Jagan’s own media house, Sakshi, was publishing stories in support of the idea of new capital.
“Maphegun now appears to be a systematic and coordinated campaign by YSRCP leaders, supporters and digital networks to repeatedly project it as a serious alternative capitalist model,” political analyst Srinivas Rao Manchala said.
He said Jagan’s Mavigun idea should serve as a wake-up call for Naidu, who has taken the Amaravati capital for granted. “Now that the Center has given legal nod to Amaravati, it must speed up the ongoing works. If it does not make tangible progress in the next three years, there is every possibility that Jagan will dismantle the capital project completely, if voted to power again,” Manchala said.
According to him, Jagan seems to have no interest in developing Amaravati as a capital. “That is why, he has been saying that he can undo what Naidu did by adopting a resolution in the state assembly. There is no doubt that if he comes to power, his first decision could be to develop Amaravati. That is why he and his party leaders are strongly pushing the Mavegaon proposal,” he added.
