TIRUPATI: The newly-constituted 18-member Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) Board of Trustees headed by chairman Chadalavada Krishnamurthy would take oath at the Tirumala temple on May 2. The new board, which was constituted on April 27 by the state government, would have a tenure of only one year. Usually, the TTD board tenure is for two years. In the 10 years of Congress rule, T Subbarami Reddy, Bhumana Karunakar Reddy, D K Adikeshavulu and Kanumuri Bapiraju had all completed their two-year tenure as board chairman.
Chadalavada, a TDP leader from Tirupati, was reportedly denied an Assembly ticket in the last general elections by TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu on the promise that he would be made the TTD chairman if the party came to power in the state.
On assuming office, Naidu fulfilled his promise, but after delaying the formation of the board for nearly one year.
Congress MP Kanumuri Bapiraju, who was the TTD Board chairman during the Congress regime, had continued to serve in that post for a few more months after the TDP formed the government in the state.
Film director K Raghavendra Rao and Bharat Biotech joint MD Suchitra Ella made it to the new board. TDP MLAs Dola Balaveeranjaneya Swamy (Kondapi), Pilli Ananta Lakshmi (Kakinada), Putta Sudhakar Yadav (Mydukur), Kolla Lalitha Kumari (Srungavarapukota) (all from AP) and G Sayanna (Secunderabad Cantonment) and Sandra Venkata Veeraiah (Sattupalli) are the legislators from Telangana who made it to the TTD Board.
New member A V Ramana is a TDP office-bearer at NTR Trust Bhavan in Hyderabad. The non-Telugus who made it to the board are D P Anantha from Karnataka, J Sekhar Reddy, a builder from Tamil Nadu, V Krishnamurthy, a spiritualist from Delhi and Sampath Ravi Narayan from Bengaluru.
Pasupuleti Hariprasad, a doctor from Tirupati, reportedly made it to the board on the recommendation of Jana Sena chief and actor Pawan Kalyan.
Telangana BJP MLA Chintala Ramachandra Reddy and BJP official spokesperson G Bhanuprakash Reddy from Tirupati, both of whom had pinned hopes on getting a berth in the TTD Board, were disappointed as their names were missing in the final list.
More Members Likely
Sources said the state government is planning to bring an ordinance to add one more member to the TTD Board to accommodate a BJP leader either from AP or Telangana. The Cabinet meet on May 4 is likely to consider this issue.
Rajnath, Uma Have Their Say
Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu inducted some members from other states into the board as per the recommendations of Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti, according to sources.