On June 21, Y V Subba Reddy took a 12-km walk and entered through the Vaikuntam Queue Complex of the Tirumala Balaji Temple at Tirupati as a common pilgrim. Inside the temple, he performed several rituals with his family. A few hours later, he walked out a VVIP, freshly anointed as the chairman of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), a statutory body that manages one of the richest temples in the world. But this was a story not without controversial plot twists.
Reddy, 59, trekked on foot to reach the shrine and participated in the elaborate tulabharam — an offering of