For the last few hours, media – both mainstream and social media – has been agog with speculations that YSR Congress party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy has decided to reconstitute the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams trust board.
According to these reports, which are understood to have been leaked by the government sources themselves, present TTD trust board chairman Subba Reddy has requested the chief minister to relieve him of the post, as he has to focus full time on politics in the election year.
Subba Reddy, who was renominated as TTD trust board chairman in August 2021 after the completion of his first term of two-years in June 2021, has time till July 2023, but he wants to step down at the earliest as he has been appointed as party in-charge for Visakhapatnam.
Apparently, Jagan also accepted his request. He reportedly assured that he would dissolve the existing board and reconstitute the board, in the second week of January, maybe after the completion of Dharnurmasam.
However, sources said, the exercise to find a new trust board chairman has already begun and several names of the party leaders are also coming up for discussion in the party circles.
According to the speculations, Jagan is considering the name of Tirupati MLA Bhumana Karunakar Reddy as the new TTD trust board chairman.
Bhumana had earlier held this post during the regime of Jagan’s father and former chief minister late Y S Rajasekhar Reddy.
Another name that is doing rounds in the social media is that of Chandragiri MLA and board member Chevireddy Bhaskar Reddy, who is also a staunch loyalist of Jagan and an ardent devotee of Lord Venkateshwara.
However, the chief minister is apprehensive that if the post is given to another Reddy, it might lead to criticism from various quarters. So, he might prefer a BC leader for the post.
In such a case, it could be given to senior party MLC and whip Janga Krishna Murthy from Gurajala in Palnadu district.
The chief minister might also do away with the appointment of special invitees for the TTD trust board as he had done last time.
The formation of jumbo trust board with a large number of special invitees led to massive criticism and was also challenged in the high court. The issue is still pending in the court.
