The YSR Congress party government headed by Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy on Thursday appointed a seven-member panel of special invitees for the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams, in continuation of the appointment of a 28-member trust board.
The special invitee include, Tirupati MLA Bhumana Karunakar Reddy, MP Raksh Sinha and advisory committee presidents Sekhar AJ from Chennai, Kupender Reddy from Bengaluru, Govinda Hari from Hyderabad, Dusmanth Kumar Das from Bhubhaneswar and Amor Kale from Mumbai.
These special invitees to the TTD will have all protocol facilities given to the regular TTD trust board members, but will not have any voting right while passing resolutions in the Board.
While there is no controversy with regard to the appointment of these special invitees, the presence of the name of Sekhar A J from Chennai in the list evoked curiosity in a section of media is.
Even before making enquiries about this person, some media started assuming that he is none other sand mining baron Sekhar Reddy, who was allegedly caught red-handed by the Income Tax authorities during the demonetisation period a couple of years ago, while possessing huge wealth disproportionate to his income in brand Rs 2,000 currency notes.
Sekhar Reddy was then a member of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams and the YSR Congress leaders then alleged that he had close links with the TDP bosses. Then chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu immediately removed him from the TTD board following allegations.
It is not exactly known whether the same person is back into the TTD as special invitee, since the list released by the government nowhere says he is Sekhar Reddy, but just Sekhar AJ.
In any case, the sooner the government clarifies the issue, the better.
