Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has gotten everyone confused everyone with the new draft that he released, with respect to the new boundaries of the districts in the state. The proposed boundaries of the 26 districts are causing a debate, about the potential politics behind them, who stands to win and who stands to lose because of them.
The government has now put out the initial draft and said that ample time is being given to everyone to put forth their objections and qualms about the new districts and that the final draft would be prepared only after hearing these objections. The final draft is about to be announced by March-end, during the Ugadi festival. The government also added that the new district boundaries have been drafted only after consulting with the people.
In West Godavari, Nellore and Krishna districts, the division of the districts is likely to cause problems for the Telugu Desam Party. The Santhanuthalapadu assembly constituency has been attached to Ongole instead of Bapatla, and similarly, Sarvepalli, which is a part of the Tirupati Lok Sabha constituency is now part of the Nellore district. While this does not have any geographical impact, it would affect the demography of the Tirupati Lok Sabha constituency. The renaming of the Manyam district after Alluri Seetharama Raju too reportedly has political and electoral motives, due to which everyone is of the opinion that the restricting of the districts was done keeping in mind the political strengths of the YSRCP and the other parties in the state, especially the TDOP.