YADADRI BHUVANAGIRI: After several days of high-powered drama, controversies and agitations by various political parties, the State-ruling TRS government finally took a step back and removed all carvings of Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and other imminent political leaders from the stone pillars in the Yadadri Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy temple.
The temple has been under renovation for quite some time after CM KCR allotted several crores of rupees for its development. It was at a time when most renovation works were almost complete that a controversy sparked off across TS after people found images of KCR, TRS election symbol car, symbolic representation of various welfare schemes of the TRS government and carvings of leaders like Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru on the temple pillars.
After the news spread like wildfire across the State, several Opposition parties like Congress and BJP and Hindu organisations like Bajrang Dal and Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) visited the temple and marked their protest. BJP State President Dr Laxman and Goshamahal BJP MLA Raja Singh also visited the temple and warned to take out protest against the government if the engravings are not removed in a week.
During a press meet organised by the Yadagirigutta Temple Development Authority (YTDA) officials in Hyderabad on Friday night, Kishan Rao, vice chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of YTDA, said that no one pressured them to engrave the images on the temple pillars.
Meanwhile, the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) officials contacted the temple authorities on Saturday and directed them to remove all engravings on the pillars. As per directions from the CMO, the authorities removed all political engravings from the pillars.