VIJAYAWADA: Controversy over the anointment of Sanchaita Gajapati, BJYM national executive member, as chairperson of the Simhachalam Temple trust board and the family-run Maharaja Alak Narayana Society of Arts and Sciences (MANSAS) Trust Board took an unsavoury turn on Saturday with no less a person than her uncle and TDP leader Ashok Gajapati Raju insinuating that she could be a Christian.
Breaking his silence for the first time after Sanchaita replaced him, Ashok Gajapati Raju remarked, "I have not yet seen the GO. Why haven’t they uploaded it on the internet? I can understand if I was served a notice that I acted against the aims and objectives of MANSAS."
The former minister addressed the media at his residence in Vizianagaram and made it clear that he, as legal heir of the Gajapati family, will fight back. Though he refrained from directly attacking his niece, he questioned why the government was being opaque and what was the need to nominate members by stealth at midnight.
"We don’t even know who are on the board of Simhachalam trust... whether their background was verified... problem arises if people of another faith are appointed," he observed. Pointing fingers at the YSRC government, he expressed suspicions that the entire affair was orchestrated only with an eye on the vast tracts of land belonging to the Simhachalam trust.