Tirupati stampede: Jagan blames Andhra CM, police, revenue officials

Tirupati (Andhra Pradesh): YSRCP leader Jagan Mohan Reddy on Thursday blamed Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, police and revenue officials for the Tirupati stampede in which six people were killed and dozens injured.

"Entire police force was deployed for Chandrababu’s Kuppam tour for three days and there were no police personnel for crowd management which led to the stampede,” alleged Reddy, addressing a press conference in the temple town.

With police occupied with Naidu’s tour on January 6, 7 and 8, "no force" was available to handle the crowd, he said, adding that this "shows that the chief minister has neither fear nor devotion towards God".

Six devotees died and nearly 40 were injured in the stampede at Bairagi Patteda near MGM School in Tirupati on Wednesday night as hundreds of people jostled for tickets for Vaikunta Dwara Darshanam at the Lord Venkateswara Swamy Temple on the Tirumala Hills.

Hundreds of devotees turned up from across the country for the 10-day Vaikunta Dwara Darshanam commencing on January 10.

Former chief minister Reddy consoled the injured at a local hospital and demanded the TDP government extend an ex–gratia of Rs 50 lakh each for the kin of the deceased and Rs 5 lakh each for the injured devotees.

Every year, lakhs of devotees come on Vaikunata Ekadashi (an auspicious occasion), and arrangements should have been made as it has been the practice. But this time, there was negligence and a lack of manpower to control the crowd, he said.

Alleging that the sanctity of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), the official custodian of the Lord Venkateswara Temple in Tirupati, has been degraded, the opposition leader claimed that the stampede shows how the coalition leaders and the TTD top brass treat the devotees who come from far and wide for a darshan.

"During our term (2019–2024) we had conducted such events with care and passion, but this year caution was thrown to the winds... The devotees were kept in parks and other places without even giving them food or water," he alleged.

Further, Reddy asserted that the FIR over the stampede was booked under "ordinary" sections and claimed that the devotees had come from all the counters to complain about a similar situation and not just from Bairagi Patteda.

"He (Naidu) had earlier too done the same thing during Godavari Pushkarams in which 29 persons were killed in a stampede which was the result of his publicity craze,” said the YSRCP supremo, referring to the incident during the erstwhile TDP regime between 2014 and 2019.

On Thursday, Naidu suspended two officials and transferred three more, holding them responsible for the incident.