Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy took everyone by surprise when he announced that he had accepted the request of Opposition leader, N Chandrababu Naidu in the reorganization of districts. He addressed the MLAs and the new collectors after inaugurating the new districts from his camp office at Tadepalli on Monday.

Jagan Mohan Reddy said that the government had received several requests for inclusion and deletion of areas in the new districts and upgradation of some areas as revenue divisions. He said that the government had carefully examined all the requests and considered them if they were reasonable and genuine.

He said the Kuppam too was made the headquarters of the new revenue division, following a request from its local MLA, N Chandrababu Naidu. He said that the TDP chief, while being the chief minister of the state for 14 long years and also the opposition leader for 10 years, had done nothing for Kuppam.

“Chandrababu Naidu could not make Kuppam a municipality. He could not make it even a revenue division. We have made it a municipality and now a revenue division,” Jagan Mohan Reddy said, as the legislators responded with claps.

However, Jagan Mohan Reddy did not accept the demand of Chandrababu Naidu’s brother-in-law and TDP MLA from Hindupur, Nandamuri Balakrishna to make Hindupur the new district headquarters.

At the same time, Jagan Mohan Reddy had created a new district with Vijayawada as headquarters and named it after the late N T Rama Rao. This was also the request of the relatives of NTR from his native village, Nimmakuru, which falls in Machilipatnam district. As NTR studied in Vijayawada and worked while staying here, naming of the new district after the later leader had won him applause.