The legal battles on the Chief Priest posts of the TTD are historic, countless and endless. Once again, the appointment of Ramana Deekshitulu is challenged in the High Court of Andhra Pradesh. Another TTD Temple Chief Priest Venugopala Deekshitulu filed this petition now. As a result, the court issued notices to the Jagan Reddy Government, the TTD and also to Ramana Deekshitulu at his individual level.

Ramana Deekshitulu’s direct appointment as Chief Priest created political ripples ahead of the Tirupati by-election. His comments describing CM Jagan as an avatar of Vishnu also raised eyebrows at that time. Those comments were seen as aimed at reciprocating for the CM’s blessings.

Now, Venugopala Deekshitulu petitioned the court that Ramana Deekshitulu’s appointment would not be legal or constitutional. It was because already Venugopala Deekshitulu was already functioning as the Chief Priest from the ‘Gollapalli family’. Ramana Deekshitulu also hailed from the Gollapalli family. As such, he cannot be given this post considering that Venugopala Deekshitulu was already there in that post in their family quota.

The TTD Chief Priests posts became controversial as the eligible candidates were taking political patronage to get the posts through the backdoor.