Telangana minister Puvvada Ajay’s demand for inclusion of five villages adjacent to Bhadrachalam town in Telangana raised greater controversy in the midst of floods. The Minister said that the temple town has an inundation threat from Godavari floods. He wanted AP to give five villages to Telangana so that they could build a flood bank along the temple town.

The AP ministers have reacted sharply to this demand. While Minister Ambati Rambabu and former minister Perni Nani ridiculed the demand, another Minister Botsa Satyanarayana asked for the merger of the two Telugu states. He also wanted Telangana to give Hyderabad to Andhra Pradesh.

The AP leaders took strong exception to the demand and advised the Telangana minister not to create controversy and conflict between the two Telugu states.

As if the demand itself was not enough, the Telangana minister said that his party MPs were working to place a demand in the Parliament for the merger of five villages from Etapaka mandal, which are now part of Andhra Pradesh.

This seems to have irked the local leaders who have started holding protests in these five villages of Etapaka, Kannayigudem, Purushottapatnam, Gundala and Pichukalapadu, located around Bhadrachalam town.

The residents led by the ruling YSR Congress leaders held a protest on Friday demanding that Bhadrachalam town be merged with Andhra Pradesh instead of taking five villages from Andhra Pradesh. Local MPTC member Varsa Balakrishna, led the protest against the Telangana demand for taking over five villages.

These leaders said that Bhadrachalam belonged to Andhra Pradesh till 1959, when it was merged with the Khammam district for administrative purposes. They wanted the Telangana government to give back Bhadrachalam to Andhra Pradesh instead of asking for five villages from Andhra Pradesh.