Till Friday afternoon, there have been reports that YSR Congress party president and former Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy was getting ready to go to Tirumala in the evening and have darshan of Lord Venkateshwara on Saturday morning.
YSRCP leader and former Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) trust board chairman Bhumana Karunakar Reddy even announced that Jagan would not sign any declaration, as he had already done it in the past; and if he is prevented from entering the temple, the YSRCP would launch a big protest.
But by around 3 pm, there was a message from Jagan’s office to all the media houses that he was cancelling his visit to Tirumala; and that he would address a press conference to disclose the reason.
This has taken everybody by surprise and has given a scope to his rivals in the Telugu Desam Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party that Jagan has cancelled his Tirumala visit, fearing that he would be forced to declare his faith in Lord Venkateshwara, which he did not want because of his Christian faith.
Sources, however, said Jagan had decided not to go to Tirumala because of the stringent police restrictions in the town.
Apparently, Jagan wanted to put up a big road show in Tirupati, right from Renigunta airport to Tirupati town, obviously to counter the theory that the people are angry with him over the alleged adulterated laddu episode.
Right from Bhumana to Chevireddy Bhaskar Reddy to R K Roja, several top YSRCP leaders had made arrangements for the road show of Jagan. They even applied for police permission, sources said.
But the Chandrababu Naidu government did not give him such an opportunity, as there were strict instructions to the police not to allow any such rallies or processions in Tirupati that would give any political mileage or media coverage to Jagan.
Accordingly, the police kept several YSRCP leaders under house arrest and issued them notices, stating that they should not make any attempt to take out any rallies or processions in Tirupati.
At the same time, the BJP and the other right wing groups have also began gearing up for a counter rally and that would have led to a big law and order issue.
There were indications that the police might even take Jagan into custody at the airport itself, if he wanted to go out in a procession, instead of going alone to Tirumala.
Taking all these things into consideration, Jagan preferred to cancel his Tirumala tour. It also gave him an opportunity to take Naidu to task for creating hurdles for him in having darshan of Lord Venkateshwara.