Opposition YSR Congress Party on Wednesday conducted a series of protests at the offices of Andhra Jyothi daily, including at its headquarters in Hyderabad. Police were deployed to prevent YSRCP leaders from further troubling the daily’s staff or causing vandalism. The protests come after the daily’s managing director, Vemuri Radhakrishna, reportedly made comments about the wives of YSRCP leaders, which were purported to portray the psychological state of YSRCP leaders vis-à-vis the Andhra Pradesh state capital, Amaravati.
Recently, the Union Government passed the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation (Amendment) Act, 2026, to grant Amaravati legal status. The ruling Telugu Desam Party hailed the new permanent capital and blasted YSRCP for its effort to declare a tri-capital for Andhra Pradesh. For those uninitiated, YSRCP scrapped Amaravati as the state capital after coming to power in 2019. The party has declared Amaravati, Kurnool, and Visakhapatnam as the legislative, judicial, and administrative capitals. Then, the Opposition TDP has opposed this move, and it would make Amaravati a permanent capital once the party is in power. With the recent law, TDP has fulfilled its promise. The YSRCP opposed the move, stating that Amaravati was untenable, and its leader, Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy, proposed changing the capital to Mavigun, the region comprising three cities: Machilipatnam, Vijayawada, and Guntur. However, he faced several questions about why he did not come up with this idea while in power, and also faced online trolling for proposing a name similar to his.
In his Sunday editorial piece “Kotta Paluku” on April 5, Radha Krishna objected to the YSRCP’s stand. However, the language he chose to express his opinions has apparently caused the stir. He reportedly wrote that YSRCP leaders would consider their wives as sisters if Jaganmohan Reddy said so, and they would even marry them off by searching for matches for them. The YSRCP leader Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy immediately condemned the statement and accused the media owner of exceeding the limits of freedom of expression. The party leaders came onto the streets in many places and burnt the copies of the Andhra Jyothi newspaper and the photos of Radha Krishna. In several places, the protest turned violent when police stopped them from approaching the daily's offices.
Talking to THE WEEK, YSRCP MP Maddila Gurumurthy condemned the editorial. “In no way do Radha Krishna’s comments represent decent journalism. There is no problem if he criticises YSRCP, but he cannot comment on the wives of the party leaders and cadre,” he said. The party MLC Monditoka Arun Kumar said the party cannot tolerate such “derogatory” comments, and the daily has gone overboard by making them. The leaders said the party would continue until Radhakrishna apologised.
The party sources said that though there was no specific political mileage from these protests, they wanted to carry them out to send a message to media outlets that they could not cross the line of personal decency.
Radhakrishna has refused to budge and said he made the comments only to point out the herd mentality in YSRCP. He alleged that Jaganmohan Reddy was trying to deflect public attention from his idea of Mavigan. Andhra Pradesh IT minister Nara Lokesh and Deputy Chief Minister K. Pawan Kalyan have backed Andhra Jyothi. The journalists' associations also condemned the protest at the daily’s offices.
