The Balapur laddu culture is slowly creeping into the temple town. The phenomenon of auctioning laddu kept in the hands of Lord Vinayaka during the Ganesh Chaturthi fete, which was limited to some areas in Hyderabad, is gradually, spreading in Tirupati.
Though the size of the laddus may not be on par with the one in Balapur, but the price of the laddus here are also fetching lakhs for organisers. Compared to other major citites, the Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations will celebrated on a low-key note in Tirupati. While pandal organisers celebrate the occasion for nine days in many parts of the state, in Tirupati the festival will be for three days and almost all idols will be immersed in Vinayaka Sagar, on the outskirts of the town on the third day.
If the third day of the festival happens to be a Tuesday, considered inauspicious, the mass immersion programme will be postponed to the fifth day.
The trend of auctioning laddu is limited to a few pandals, but more organisers are joining the fray. Tirupati Urban Development Authority (TUDA) former chairman Chevireddy Bhaskar Reddy, who stood as the front-runner in adopting the Ganesh laddu auction culture, himself, boosted up the procedure by claiming the laddu at Rs 3 lakh last year in his native village of Tummalagunta on the outskirts of Tirupati.
Stating that such events will help in adding a feather more to the celebration, he observed that the procedure will also ensure some good revenues for pandal organisers to celebrate the event on a grand note.
According to Tirupati Ganesh Nimajjana Utsava Committee convener Samanchi Srinivas, there will be an odd 450 Ganesh pandals in the city containing idols from medium to large sizes and an equal number of pandals erected in various locations, where small sized idols are worshiped every year. He added that instances of auctioning laddu is limited only to a few pandals.
But for some, the laddu is more of a revenue generation and thus did not go well with some people of Bangarupalem.
“In the district where the famous Swayambhu Varasidhi Vinayaka temple at Kanipakam is situated, where the Vinayaka Brahmotsavams will be held for 21 days, it is unfortunate that some people are trying to make money with this kind of activity,” said a villager from Bangarupalem.
The organisers of a pandal put up a laddu weighing 12 kilos prepared at a cost of Rs 9,500. The villagers, who participated in the auction decided to teach the organisers a lesson, formed into a syndicate and ended the auction for Rs 1.25 paise.