Kakinada: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on Sunday laid claim to the temple town of Bhadrachalam, saying that it belonged to the state and that he would wrest it back.
“We should save, protect and worship our Lord Rama and we will perform pujas to our Lord Rama. Rama is ours,” Mr Naidu said. “It is our responsibility to bring back our Lord Rama.”
He said that Bhadrachalam once belonged to East Godavari district. After the formation of Andhra Pradesh, Bhadrachalam was merged with Khammam district for administrative reasons.
After bifurcation, Bhadrachalam had not been given to AP but he had secured the merger of seven mandals of Bhadrachalam division to facilitate the construction of the Polavaram project.
He would now fight to get Bhadrachalam merged with the East Godavari district of AP, Mr Naidu said.
He was speaking at a series of election meetings at Samalkot, Pithapuram, Kakinada and Kakinada Rural segments on Sunday.
He accused Telangana state Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao of “insulting, humiliating, scolding and heaping all sorts of abuses on the Andhra people”. But, he said, “YSRC president Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy and his kodi kathi party (cockfight knife, a reference to the alleged attempt on the YSRC leader’s life) had joined hands with Mr Rao who was distributing money. He said that he would not tolerate it any including Mr Rao insulted the people of AP.”
He said Mr Rao should give `1 lakh crore to AP but did not elaborate. On local issues, he said that Pasupu Kumkuma cheques would be given on Monday and women can withdraw money from banks. He said farmers had got funds under the Annadata Sukhibhava scheme. He alleged that Mr Rao was obstructing work on irrigation projects including Polavaram. The Polavaram project would be completed under any circumstance, he said.
