The festive fervour in Hyderabad has reached fever pitch on the occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi. Like every year, the Ganesh Laddu of Balapur village was put on auction on Monday and sold to the highest bidder.
The 21 kg laddu was won by Nagam Tirupati Reddy, an aspiring political leader from Ayyappa Society, Jubilee Hills.
While Mahendra Reddy, a steel company proprietor made a bid for Rs 15.55 lakh, Nagam Reddy sealed the deal by offering Rs 15.6 lakh.
Nagam Reddy reportedly had been trying to win the laddu for five years now, but without much success.
Speaking to HMTV channel, he said, “I hope this [laddu] will change my fate. This laddu has magical powers.”
The auction started at 10am and lasted for 25 minutes. Last year, the highest bid for the laddu was Rs 14.65 lakh.
In this year’s laddu auction, there were four new entrants, reported The Hindu.
It is a practice of bidding the laddu before Ganesha’s immersion. This tradition of bidding it has been continuing for nearly two decades now, and it is believed that the laddu brings prosperity to whoever wins it in the auction.
Meanwhile, the GHMC (Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation) authorities have deployed 159 cranes and over 27,000 security police personnel, including paramilitary forces, for the smooth conduct of the immersions.
As many as 16 bomb disposal teams have also been pressed into service.
Personnel of the elite anti-Maoist force Greyhounds and anti-terror unit OCTOPUS (organization for counter terrorist operations) have also been kept on stand-by for any emergency.
Hyderabad Police Commissioner M Mahender Reddy said they were monitoring the processions through 15,000 CCTV cameras and 800 video cameras. In addition to this, the top cop will conduct an aerial survey.
Interestingly, participants at this year's Ganesh immersion procession raised anti-China slogans and held placards calling for boycott of Chinese products.
Wearing saffron caps, some of them raised slogans against Beijing in front of one of the idols in the immersion procession on Tuesday. "Boycott Made in China products" was the slogan on one of the placards held by them.
They also raised slogans of "Indian Army zindabad' and "Bharat mata ki jai".
(With IANS inputs)