“Andhra sentiment” that was exploited by political parties by kicking up the special category status issue during the recent elections in Andhra Pradesh is back to the fore again.

This time, it is the decision of the National Democratic Alliance government at the Centre to close down Andhra Bank and merge it with Union Bank of India along with another public sector bank Corporation Bank.

Within hours of finance minister Nirmala Sitaraman making the announcement, comments whipping up Andhra sentiment started doing rounds in the social media.

“It is a matter of pride for Telugu people in Andhra. Earlier, the Centre has hurt the sentiments of Hyderabadi people by merging State Bank of Hyderabad with SBI. Now, it is the turn of Andhra Bank,” a netizen commented in the social media.

Another netizen observed that Andhra Bank was the only bank that has the term ‘Andhra’ in the banking sector. Now it is being removed, so as to wipe out Andhra name from the banking industry, he said.

Founded as a small private bank in Machilipatnam (Krishna district headquarter) in Andhra Pradesh on November 20, 1923 by well-known freedom fighter late Bhogaraju Pattabhi Sitaramayya, the bank shifted its headquarters to Hyderabad after the nationalization and grew to 2,885 branches across the country.

Congress party’s Rajya Sabha member K V P Ramachandra Rao wrote a letter to Nirmala Sitaraman asking her to reconsider the decision to merge Andhra Bank with UBI since it hurt the sentiments of Telugu speaking people.

He said merging a bank entangled with the honor of the Telugus and removing its name permanently would hurt their feelings.

He said the people of Andhra were already agitated over the bifurcation of the first linguistic state of AP. They are also angry with the Centre for not fulfilling the promises made in AP bifurcation act.

“Now, if Andhra Bank is also wound up, it would hurt their sentiments. I strongly feel that this at least shall not happen when a daughter-in-law of Andhra state is heading the Union Ministry of Finance,” he said.

YSR Congress MP from Machilipatnam V Balashowry also wrote a separate letter to Nirmala stating that the merger of Andhra Bank with UBI was a very sensitive issue attached to the sentiments of crores of Telugu people.

He demanded that if the merger was inevitable, the Centre should retain the name of Andhra Bank for the merged banks.