The Andhra Pradesh government on Wednesday announced 24 members that it has nominated to the coveted Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) trust board, ending months of speculation.
The prominent names which surfaced include former Board of Control for Cricket In India (BCCI) President & Indian Cements MD N Srinivasan, who will now serve for a third term. Hetero Group chairman B Parthasarathy Reddy was also nominated. Both of them are accused in the quid-pro-quo case of Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy, which is being investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
The Government Order which was issued nominated eight members from Andhra, seven from Telangana, four from Tamil Nadu, three from Karnataka and one each from Delhi and Maharashtra. Four ex-officio members were also nominated.
Infosys Foundation chairperson Sudha Murty, who had quit as a member of the TTD in June this year, was also renominated. Industrialists Ramesh Shetty and Sampath Ravi Narayana were the other two names that figured from Karnataka.
My Home Group Chairman and prominent industrialist Rameshwar Rao, and Managing Director of Telugu daily Namaste Telangana and Telangana Today D Damodar Rao, both of whom are close to Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, also found their names on the list. TRS leader Mooramsetti Ramulu was also nominated.
Two YSRCP leaders from Hyderabad, K Siva Kumar and Putta Pratap Reddy, were nominated to the board.
Three legislators, U V Ramana Murthy from Yalamanchili, Meda Mallikarjuna Reddy from Rajampet, and K Parthasarathy from Penamaluru, were also nominated to the board.
Besides Srinivasan, R Kumaraguru, the AIADMK MLA from Ulundurpet, was nominated, along with Chennai-based Dr Nichitha Muppavarapu and Krishnamurthy Vaidyanathan, from Tamil Nadu.
The other names include MS Shiva Shankaran from Delhi and Rajesh Sharma from Maharashtra, besides V Prasanthi, Nadendla Subba Rao, Parigela Murali Krishna, DP Anantha and Chippagiri Prasad Kumar.
Just earlier this month, the Andhra cabinet had decided to increase the strength of the TTD board, including present chairman Y V Subba Reddy, from 19 to 25.
The TTD manages affairs at the Sri Venkateswara temple atop Tirumala, which is one of the richest Hindu temples in the world.