MLA’s Appointment As TTD Member Kicks Up Row

Amaravati: A controversy has erupted over the appointment of an Andhra Pradesh MLA as a member of the TTD Board after a video surfaced where she purportedly said she was a Christian, prompting a BJP-linked outfit to call it an act of "sacrilege" and seek her ouster.

Payakaraopet MLA Vangalapudi Anitha was appointed to the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams Board, which governs the Lord Venkateswara's shrine at Tirumala, by the Andhra Pradesh government yesterday.

Today, a video went viral in social media where the woman legislator purportedly claimed she was a devout Christian. "I always have a Bible in my bag and in my car. I don't move out without the Bible in hand," she told the interviewer in the video.

The BJYM, the youth wing of the BJP, slammed the government over the appointment and demanded her removal. "It's nothing but sacrilege. How can a self-proclaimed Christian be appointed to a Hindu religious body," Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) state president S Vishnuvardhan Reddy said, adding "she should be removed forthwith." Earlier, questions were raised after businessman Putta Sudhakara Yadav was appointed the chairman of the TTD Board.

Some pro-Hindu groups had objected to the appointment of Yadav, a close relative of the state's Finance Minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu, claiming he had "campaigned" for various Christian events. Yadav, however, rejected their allegation and insisted he was a Hindu. (PTI)