AP chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy had listed his rivals for the impending 2024 general elections. He made the list clear in his address in the Assembly on Thursday.

Two years ahead of the elections, Jagan Mohan Reddy seems to have started his political campaign now.

He had given enough indications to his Cabinet colleagues at the recent cabinet meeting, where he told the Ministers to be in touch with the people.

He is also scheduled to meet his MLAs and MPs once the current budget session of the Assembly is over.

He also made some political remarks at the International Women’s Day celebrations where he listed his government’s achievements and targeted the opposition TDP without mincing words.

He is now said to be planning to launch the much awaited Rachabanda programme, where he would interact with the people in the districts.

Sources say that Jagan Mohan Reddy would start his districts’ tour from June this year and that would culminate with the 2024 elections.

But, before that, he made the list of his rivals for the elections. His rival number one is TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu.

The other rivals are not from any political party, but from the media. He named Eenadu’s Ramoji Rao, Andhra Jyothi’s Radha Krishna and TV5’s Naidu.

Jagan Mohan Reddy had named all these four as his rivals during his speech in the Assembly and his future public speeches would have all these names too.

Various companies are planning to invest Rs 2,868 crore in tourism projects in Andhra Pradesh with at least Rs 250 crore investments on each project, the state government said on Wednesday.

This investments will provide employment to 48,000 people and create 1,564 new tourism rooms. The companies plan to complete all these projects in five years.

Oberoi Company will set up resorts in Visakhapatnam, Tirupati, Gandikota, Horsley Hills, and Pitchukalanka in the name of Oberoi Vilas and the Hayat Group will build a Star Hotel and Convention Centre at Shilparamam in Visakhapatnam.

Another hotel and service apartment with the name Taj Varun Beach will come up in Visakhapatnam. Tunnel Aquarium and Sky Tower will be constructed in Visakhapatnam and Hyatt Palace Hotel in Vijayawada.

A Spiritual Tourism Centre will be set up under the auspices of ISKCON Charities at Gnanagiri Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy Temple at Penugonda in Anantapur district.

This was announced after Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy chaired the State Investment Promotion Board (SIPB) meeting and directed the officials to ensure Andhra Pradesh becomes a destination for the tourism sector.

He directed the authorities that tourism projects should attract international tourists, and state of the art facilities should be made available to them. He instructed the officials to complete the projects on time and said that availability of modern facilities will help to improve tourism and added that the number of tourists from other countries will also increase and the people who are dependent directly or indirectly on the tourism sector will get better opportunities.

The Chief Minister instructed the officials to focus on bringing a London Eye-like project to Visakhapatnam.

Ministers Pilli Subhash Chandra Bose and Mopidevi Venkata Ramana are both Members of Legislative Council (MLCs). They are both known for their die-hard loyalty to the YSR family. Mopidevi is Jagan’s Co-Accused in CBI illegal assets cases and went to jail for sometime. Now, their Ministerial positions are doubtful as the State Cabinet has just abolished the Council. The two Ministers are also party to the abolition decision taken today. Will it be possible to continue them as Ministers for long? Discussions are started what would CM Jaganmohan Reddy do to the two Ministers now.

However, Jagan has promised to to somehow accommodate them. As per the rules, the members should get elected as MLC or MLA within six months of becoming the Ministers. The Council is being abolished just because the TDP members are in majority right now. After one year, the ruling YCP will gain more MLCs enough to win majority in the Upper House. Will Jagan revive the Council once the terms of most TDP MLCs are over? Fresh elections will have to be held if the Council is abolished and revived after a small gap. This will help YCP to hit two birds at one shot. Jagan can put TDP in a disadvantage while creating better political opportunities for itself afterwards.

For the first time, YS Jaganmohan Reddy appeared before the CBI Special Court in his capacity as the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh. Till now, Jagan successfully avoided attending the court on some pretext or the other ever since becoming Chief Minister with brute majority. Jagan mother YS Vijayamma, his sister Sharmila, his party Number 2 leader Vijayasai Reddy, Konda Surekha family and others also appeared before the court. The AP CM is the Accused No 1 in the Rs 43,000-cr CBI illegal assets cases.

Interestingly, the CBI didn’t object to exemption from personal appearance for Jagan in the first four months of his rule. But things turned bad after Jagan Reddy embarrassed the Modi government internationally by cancelling the PPAs of global Sola Power Companies. Jagan Reddy also ignored the Central Government’s advice with regard to the multi-crore Polavaram project.

Jagan left Amaravati by a special aircraft and reached the Begumpet air port. From there, he went straight to the Nampally CBI Court. Jagan has been involved in over 11 CBI cases. In all these cases, the actual trial has not begun till now. The national media and Telugu media gave lot of focus on Jagan appearing before court for the first as CM. The police restricted media at CBI Court.

YSRCP MPs submitted their resignation after the Lok Sabha has been indefinitely adjourned, without moving the No-Confidence Motion proposed by YSRCP, TDP and Indian National Congress. The AIADMK MPs continued to disrupt the business of the house, leading to an adjournment for one final time.

After the Lok Sabha has been adjourned, the YSRCP MPs have submitted their resignation to the Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, by meeting her in the Speaker Chamber, within the Parliament premises. Reacting on the same, YSRCP Supremo YS Jagan took to Twitter to tweet the same and threw an open challenge to AP CM, and TDP President Chandrababu Naidu asking him to make the TDP MPs resign.

“We do as we say! YSRCP MPs are submitting their resignations today. I challenge @ncbn to make TDP MPs resign and stand united with the people of AP in their rightful demand of Special Category Status for Andhra Pradesh”, Jagan said in his tweet.

After submitting their resignations, the YSRCP MPs started an indefinite hunger strike.

Political analysts and parties’ strategists are keenly observing the political developments both at the Centre and the state. Whatever decision Chandrababu Naidu is likely to take now, is going to decide the fate of Telugu Desam Party in the 2019 AP Assembly Elections.