'Venkatapur' boycotts polls over bifurcation | Hyderabad News - The Times of India

Hyderabad: At a time when states, cities and even villages are fighting for bifurcation, a small village in Mancherial district has boycotted the gram panchayat elections for the second term in a row, demanding that it be reunited with the village it was separated from.Vandurguda villagers say their gram panchayat has only 66 houses and fewer than 200 votes, and allege that the bifurcation from Nelki Venkatapur was carried out without their consent. They claim the split has hurt land rights, blocked funds and halted development works.In 2018, they approached the court, and just three months ago -- in August 2025 -- secured a stay on the bifurcation."As per records, there is no Nelki Venkatapur or Vandurguda. Both together are Venkatapur. Without even asking villagers, they simply divided us. Now we are at a loss," said Mokashi Beersha, whose family has held the Sarpanch post for over 30 years before bifurcation. "Our lands, which are now under the so-called Nelki Venkatapur, are not protected as they don't fall under the agency area. We will lose our identity if we are not merged back."He added that even counting infants, the population is barely 300.Villagers alleged that wrong information was used to justify the split. "It was shown that there are over 600 ST people in our village, which is far from reality. Even the distance from the nearest panchayat was manipulated," said a villager Kova Doulathrao.The division has also sparked tensions between the two habitations. While Vandurguda wants to be merged back with Venkatapur, residents of Nelki Venkatapur oppose it. This year, neither village filed nominations for Sarpanch or ward posts."There is nothing worse than being a non-tribal in an agency area. We have no rights," said Ippa Lakshmaiah of Nelki Venkatapur. "Now that Vandurguda is separated, we want our seat to be converted to general as there is no ST population here. That alone will solve our problems."