Hyderabad: Opposition Telugu Desam Party chief N Chandrababu Naidu on Thursday challenged the YS Jagan Mohan Reddy government to conduct a referendum on the three capitals for the state plan and vowed to quit politics if people voted for it.

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Addressing a joint Opposition rally at Amaravati on one year of the farmers' agitation in support of one capital, he demanded that the Chief Minister apologise to the people and withdraw the move to relocate the state capital in deference to the wishes of six crore people of the state.

“Let us go to people and put forth our respective stands on Amaravati. If the people vote for your three capitals plan, I will quit politics forever,” the former chief minister said while addressing Jana Bheri, a huge rally of farmers of Amaravati.

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The ruling YSRCP government has planned three regional capitals, shifting the executive and the judiciary out of Amaravati. The proposal was opposed by the farmers who pooled land to make Amaravati the capital during the TDP's tenure.

It was on December 17 last year that the chief minister announced in the assembly his plan to create three capitals for the state – executive capital at Visakhapatnam, legislative capital at Amaravati and judicial capital at Kurnool.

The matter is now sub-judice as the farmers who had given up over 33,000 acres of their fertile lands for the development of Amaravati city, moved the Andhra Pradesh High Court opposing the relocation of the state capital. Since December 17 last, the local farmers, with the support of political parties and other organisations, have been conducting a peaceful agitation demanding that Amaravati be retained as the state capital.

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Barring the ruling YSR Congress, all political parties and people's organisations extended support to the agitation and took part in the rally that was held amid severe restrictions by the police. "No sane person will shift the (state) capital. In case, are you ready for a referendum on the issue? I will permanently quit politics if people back your move," Naidu told Jagan Reddy.

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