Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Monday created 13 new districts in a major administrative overhaul, the Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party said in a statement. The state now has 26 districts.

The move is meant to decentralise governance in order to benefit the people of the state, the statement added.

The new districts are Parvathipuram Manyam, Alluri Sitharama Raju, Anakapalli, Kakinada, Kona Seema, Eluru, NTR, Bapatla, Palnadu, Nandyal, Sri Satyasai, Annamayyia and Tirupati, Telangana Today reported.

“Our policy is to decentralise from the village to the Capital,” the party tweeted in Telugu. “Changes are according to the needs and aspirations of the people.”

The chief minister also launched a new map of Andhra Pradesh through a video conference held at the party’s office in Tadepalli in Guntur district.

“I sincerely wish the people better governance, peace, security and transparency with the formation of new districts,” Reddy said.

He said that the move was needed for Andhra Pradesh, which has a population of nearly five crore, PTI reported.

The party’s statement said that the new districts were formed in accordance with public opinion.

“Over 17,500 suggestions were received from the public on 284 issues across the state on the new district proposals,” it said. “The state government has thoroughly examined them, studied what was reasonable and made slight changes accordingly. This changed some of the previously proposed zones in the new districts.”

The party said that according to the 2011 census, each district has an estimated average population of 18 to 20 lakh.

“The Dwaraka Tirumala Mandal, which was presently in the West Godavari district and later shifted to the East Godavari district after partition, was shifted to the Eluru district at the behest of the people there,” the statement said.

It added: “Pendurthi, which was moved to Anakapalli district, was shifted to Visakhapatnam district at the request of the locals. Slight changes have taken place in many of these zones.”

In the 2019 Assembly polls, Reddy had promised that if his party was voted to power, he would create one district for each of the 25 Lok Sabha constituencies, PTI reported.

Now, every district is the same as the parliamentary constituencies except Araku, which has been split into two districts, reported NDTV.