Former chief priest of Lord Venkateshwara temple in Tirumala A V Ramana Deekshitulu has not given up his fight to get back his hereditary archaka post, despite being given the honorary head priest post by the Jagan Mohan Reddy government.
On Thursday, Deekshitulu made an appeal to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to restore his hereditary archaka post.
He recalled that he and a few others were forced to retire from the service by the Chandrababu Naidu government in 2018 by fixing a retirement age for the priests.
However, even after the Jagan Mohan Reddy government replaced the Naidu government, the hereditary priesthood was not restored in Tirumala though the high court had given the orders to that effect.
“I request the Prime Minister to intervene and do justice to us,” Deekshitulu said, while offering a donation of Rs 50,000 to the Ram temple at Ayodhya.
Ramana Deekshitulu was not satisfied though he was made honorary head priest and also advisor to the Agama Mandali of the TTD.
He has been demanding that his post of chief priest of the temple be restored. At present, Venugopala Charya has been the head priest of the temple.
Deekshitulu went on to declare that he would support only those who come to his rescue and do justice to him.