In 2021, the Jagan government had to face flak for appointing a "jumbo" Board, having 50 "special invitees", apart from 24 regular and ex-officio members.
Tirumala Tirupati Temple. (TTD Official Website)
The YS Jagan Mohan Reddy government in Andhra Pradesh is yet again facing bitter criticism — this time about the constitution of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) Board, especially the inclusion of some “tainted” members.
In 2021, the Jagan Mohan-led government had to face flak for appointing a “jumbo” Board, with a whopping 50 “special invitees”, apart from 24 regular and ex-officio members, in a bid to accommodate several requests from around the country.
This time, the state government is being criticised for turning the TTD Board into a “political rehabilitation centre”, as described by BJP state president and former MP Daggubati Purendeswari.
In 2021, responding to a batch of petitions and PILs, the Andhra Pradesh High Court had set aside the GOs appointing “special invitees”. At that time, with 80 members, it was termed a “jumbo” TTD Board in the state’s history.
This time around, Jagan has accommodated people from Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Gujarat, and Telangana. Four from Tamil Nadu have found a place on the TTD Board.
Dr S Shankar, a BJP leader from Tamil Nadu and an reported close aide of Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, has been nominated to the TTD Board for the second time after the YSRCP came to power in 2019.
A practicing advocate in the Madras High Court, Krishnamoorthy Vaidyanathan, has also been re-nominated. This is the fourth time in a row that Vaidyanathan has found a place on the TTD Board, irrespective of the party in power.
He is believed to be close to the BJP’s strong man and Union Home Minister Amit Shah and it is also learnt that he has connections in the higher judiciary.
TVS Group’s Sudarshan Venu and Subramanian Palaniswany, who are believed to be close to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin, have also been named TTD Board members.
Maharashtra’s Shiv Sena leader, Milind Narvekar, and Saurabh Bora have been re-nominated as well. Amol Kale from Maharashtra was also taken into the TTD Board. VR Deshpande and BJP MLA SR Viswanath from Karnataka were also nominated.
Tainted doctor and former Medical Council of India (MCI) chairman, Dr Ketan Desai from Gujarat, was also nominated. He was removed as MCI Chairman in 2001 after alleged corruption charges. He was also arrested by probe agencies and spent time in jail.
From Telangana, Chevella MP Gaddam Ranjith Reddy’s wife Seetha Reddy found a place on the TTD Board.
In a surprise pick, an accused in the alleged Delhi liquor scam, Penaka Sarath Chandra Reddy, found place on the list. In the charge sheets filed by both the CBI and Enforcement Directorate (ED), Sarath Reddy was accused of being one of the members of the so-called “South Group”.
Sarath Reddy, director of top pharma firm Aurobindo Pharmaceuticals, was arrested by the ED in November last year.
It was in June 2023 that Sarath Reddy turned approver in the case and a Delhi court had granted him pardon in the case.
Sarath Reddy is also the elder brother of Rohith Reddy, the son-in-law of Rajya Sabha MP V Vijayasai Reddy, one of Chief Minister Jagan Mohan’s closest aides.
“This government is morally and ethically bankrupt. How can tainted persons like Sarath Chandra Reddy and Ketan Desai safeguard the sanctity of Tirumala temple? Is this the way Hindu religious places are treated?” asked TDP spokesperson Neelayapalem Vijay Kumar, while speaking to South First.
The TDP has also launched a campaign on social media, stating that 25 percent of the new TTD Board members are from the same community as Jagan Mohan Reddy, and also that there is no representation from north Andhra.
Jagan has been pushing a three capitals plan, offering decentralisation of development and governance with Visakhapatnam as executive capital, which will help the development of north Andhra region.
“Are north Andhra people not eligible to be members of the TTD Board?” read a post on TDP’s official social media pages.
“After the YSRCP came to power in Andhra Pradesh, attacks against Hindu temples and religious institutions have increased,” stated BJP leader Sadineni Yamini. She added, “Now, the Jagan government is using the TTD Board as a political rehabilitation centre. How can people like Sarath Reddy and Ketan Desai be appointed to the TTD Board?”
Additionally, BJP state president Daggubati Purandeswari tweeted on X (formerly Twitter) that her party condemns the appointment of these two members to the TTD Board.
Angered by the accusations, a YSRCP leader asked, “How can BJP leaders call the TTD Board a political rehabilitation centre?”
“Purandeswari should get her facts right. Who had recommended Kishnamoorthy Vaidyanathan’s name for the third time? Is it not from Amit Shah’s office? Who referred Dr Shankar from Tami Nadu? Is it not Nirmala Sitharaman? Is SR Viswanath not a BJP MLA from Karnataka? BJP ally Eknath Shinde’s office referred Narvekar from Maharashtra. Is it not Maharashtra deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis’s office that recommended Amol Kale? What about Saurabh Bora? Was he not recommended by BJP leaders? Where does Ketan Desai come from and who recommended him? Is he not from Gujarat and recommended by BJP leaders,” asked a YSRCP leader, while talking to South First.
Once again AP CM has proven that TTD Board is but a political Rehabilitation centre. To nominate to the Board people like Sarat Chandra Reddy, who was involved in the liquor scam in Delhi and Ketan Desai, who was found to be corrupt and dismissed from the MCI by the High Court of… pic.twitter.com/4BCFEycsEW
— Daggubati Purandeswari 🇮🇳 (@PurandeswariBJP) August 26, 2023
A membership to the TTD Board, which manages the affairs of the world-famous Tirumala temple of Lord Venkateswara, is considered prestigious and always has heavy demand, with recommendations coming from various power corridors across the country whenever a new Board is constituted every two years.
The Board membership has always been a sought-after post due to the many privileges attached to it, including darshan of the presiding deity.
It is probably to satisfy such overwhelming recommendations pouring in from many quarters across the country — and taking many other equations into consideration — that Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy had picked 24 regular members and around 50 “special Invitees”.
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