Jagan Mohan Reddy's uncle appointed chairman of Tirumala temple's governing board

Amaravati/Tirupati: Andhra Pradesh government on Friday appointed former MP and YSRCP leader Y V Subba Reddy as chairman of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams Trust Board that governs the shrine of Lord Venkateswara at Tirumala, near here.

Other members of the board would be appointed shortly, special chief secretary (Revenue-Endowments) Manmohan Singh said in an order.

Reddy, a close relative of Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, would take charge on Saturday. News agency ANI said that Y V Subba is CM’s uncle.

TDP leader Putta Sudhakar Yadav submitted his resignation from the TTD chairman’s post on Thursday.

Initially, Yadav was adamant on staying in the post despite the change in government.

After YSR Congress victory in the recent assembly elections, 10 members of the TTD board voluntarily quit their posts while another ceased to hold office as they lost the assembly election.

As such, only three members remained on the board, apart from three ex-officio members (government officials).

TTD executive officer Anil Kumar Singhal submitted a report to the government in this regard and stated that under Section 126 of the Andhra Pradesh Charitable and Hindu Religious Institutions and Endowments Act, 1987, the quorum for holding the (TTD) board meeting was five.

Since there have always been a few absentees in any meeting, it was no longer practically possible to run the administration with such few members, the executive officer pointed out in a letter and requested the government to take action to ensure smooth running of the TTD administration.

Based on the letter, the government decided to dissolve the previous ‘severely impaired’ Trust Board as it is ‘practically no longer possible’ to run the administration, the special chief secretary noted.

Accordingly, he issued an order dissolving the TTD Trust Board and issued another order appointing Subba Reddy as the new chairman.

Earlier, chief secretary L V Subrahmanyam held talks with the law secretary on the TTD Trust Board issue to avoid legal hassles in the constitution of a new board.

The previous board was constituted on April 20, 2018.

A temple official told PTI that the order mentioning the appointment of Subba Reddy did not mention the new chairman’s term of office.