The Andhra Pradesh government on Tuesday withdrew a resolution to abolish the Legislative Council in the state, Deccan Herald reported. The resolution was passed in 2020.

The government had decided to do away with the council to remove “intentional and avoidable” delays in the passage of Bills, legislative affairs minister Buggana Rajendranath said.

In 2020, Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy’s government had failed to get the Legislative Council pass the Bills to set up three capitals in the state as his party – the YSR Congress – did not have a majority, the Hindustan Times reported. The YSR Congress had only nine members in the council while the Opposition Telugu Desam Party had 33 members.

Reddy had said that the council had become a hurdle in making important decisions and getting approvals for them.

The Andhra Pradesh government had sent the resolution to scrap the Legislative Council to the Centre but there was no response from it, said Rajendranath, according to Deccan Herald.

“With no response coming and the prevailing ambiguity over the House functioning, the government has decided to withdraw the earlier resolution,” the minister added.

The Andhra Pradesh government’s decision to withdraw its resolution to scrap the council came a day after it rolled back the Bills to set up three capitals in the state.

The Andhra Pradesh Decentralisation and Inclusive Development of All Regions Bill, 2020, had sought to form an executive capital in Visakhapatnam, a legislative capital in Amaravati and a judicial capital in Kurnool.

The three-capital plan has been opposed by farmers in Amaravati, who gave over 30,000 acres of land for the new capital as the Andhra Pradesh government needed new headquarters post bifurcation in 2014. The old capital, Hyderabad, was given over to the newly-formed Telangana.

The farmers said they felt betrayed after the Andhra Pradesh chief minister announced that the state would have three capitals. They were promised that the value of their land would be increased after it was converted into urban real estate. But with the three-capital plan, the farmers believe they were left shortchanged.