HYDERABAD: Appointment of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) Trust Board members on Monday threw up a few ast-minute surprises though TDP senior leader and former MLA Chadalawada Krishnamurthy’s nomination as the Board chairman came on the expected lines.
After months of dillydallying, the AP government on Monday issued a GO constituting the TTD Trust Board, whose tenure is for one year.
Raising eyebrows in political circles, no prominent BJP leader from AP or Telangana figured in the 18-member list of the Trust Board which is an independent body that oversees the operations and finances of the richest religious centre in the world.
BJP Telangana MLA Chintala Ramachandra Reddy (Khairatabad) and BJP local leader in Tirupati G Bhanuprakash Reddy, a close aide of Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu -- the two names that had been doing the rounds as the front runners failed to make it to the final list.
In fact, on April 11, the day when Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu left for a China visit, State Endowments Minister and BJP leader P Manikyala Rao had reportedly conveyed to Ramachandra Reddy that his name was included in the final list of the TTD Trust Board. But much to the surprise of the BJP cadres, Reddy’s name is missing from the list and so is the name of Nitu Ambani, wife of billionaire industrialist Mukesh Ambani.
Five TDP MLAs, Kolla Lalita Kumari (Srungavarapukota), Pilli Ananta Lakshmi (Kakinada Rural) and Dola Sreebala Veeranjaneya Swamy (Kondapi) from AP and Sandra Venkata Veeraiah (Sattupalli) and G Sayanna (Secunderabad Cantonment) from Telangana have been nominated to the board.
As expected, Tollywood veteran director K Raghavendra Rao has been made a Trust Board member.
TTD Executive Officer D Sambasiva Rao, Principal Secretary (Endowments) JSV Prasad and Endowments Commissioner YV Anuradha are the ex-officio members of the board.
1 More Member 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 TS. The Cabinet meet on May 4 is likely to consider this issue. TTD Board members have been increased to 18 from 15 recently.
Rajnath, Pawan 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. The name of DP Anantha is said to be suggested by Rajnath. Sources said P Hariprasad, a close aide of Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan, is learnt to have been appointed on the latter’s suggestion.