Kia Motors set up its plant in Anantapur during Chandrababu Naidu’s 2014-19 regime, marking India’s biggest FDI at the time. The then Opposition, YSR Congress, had strongly opposed the project.
Back then, YSR Congress leaders urged farmers not to give up their land and even organized protests at the plant site. Despite the resistance, Chandrababu Naidu ensured the project went ahead.
After YSR Congress came to power in 2019, Finance Minister Buggana Rajendranath Reddy claimed in the Assembly that late YSR had written to Hyundai officials before his death in 2009 and that the plant came to Andhra Pradesh because of him. The claim, however, backfired heavily.
Now, Jagan Mohan Reddy seems to be following the same path. Earlier this week, Google announced a $15 billion AI Hub in Visakhapatnam a 1 GigaWatt data center project.
Initially, the YSR Congress ecosystem, including Sakshi and social media teams, opposed the project, calling data centers wasteful and harmful for consuming power and groundwater while generating few jobs.
But after seeing the public’s positive response, Jagan changed his stance completely. In his latest press meet, he claimed credit for bringing the Google Data Center, thanking his government, Adani, the Central Government, and even the Singapore Government.
Given how the party’s earlier attempt to claim credit for Kia Motors backfired, it remains to be seen if history repeats itself this time.
