Celebrity film producer Dil Raju, who had been eagerly waiting to get the nomination for the prestigious Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams membership for the last two months, was thoroughly disappointed when the list was out.
Dil Raju, a staunch devotee of Lord Venkateshwara of Tirumala, is learnt to have made serious lobbying for the TTD membership post.
Such was the devotion he has for the Tirumala god was that he had named his production house as Sri Venkateshwara Creations and has been donating huge sums of money to TTD for many years.
Using his proximity to the Telangana government, Dil Raju, who hails from Nizamabad district, thought he would get nomination for the TTD trust board membership, so that he would get an opportunity to serve his favourite god.
He used his good offices with K T Rama Rao, who apparently promised him to fulfill his wish under Telangana quota.
Apparently, Dil Raju also thought his community tag (His real name is V Venkata Ramana Reddy, also related to Lord Venkateshwara of Tirumala), would also come to his help.
However, Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao had others in mind.
He recommended two persons of his own Velama community – Jupally Rameshwara Rao of My Home Group and D Damodar Rao of Namasthe Telangana daily and ignored Dil Raju. And Jagan had no choice but to accept KCR’s recommendations.
Apart from the two Velama leaders, Jagan has picked up three others – Putta Pratap Reddy, who unsuccessfully contested as YSRC candidate from L B Nagar Constituency in 2014 assembly elections, Hetero Drugs Chairman Bandi Parthasarathy Reddy (who was one of the co-accused in Jagan’s quid pro quo case) and K Shiva Kumar, who had actually registered the YSR Congress party with the Election Commission.
