KCR offers prayers at Tirumala

Chief Minister of Telangana K Chandra Sekhar Rao on Monday offered prayers in the hill shrine of Lord Venkateswara along with the members of his family.

The chief minister and family arrived in Tirumala on Sunday by a special flight from Hyderabad. The Telangana Rashtra Samithi had recently won 9 out of 17 MP seats in the Lok Sabha elections.

TTD Trust Board Chairman P Sudhakar Yadav, EO Anilkumar Singhal and Tirumala JEO KS Sreenivasa Raju received the CM on his arrival at Maha Dwaram, the main entrance of the temple.

Later the chief minister offered prayers to the presiding deity of Sri Venkateswara Swamy in the sanctum sanctorum.

He was offered Vedasirvachanam in Ranganayakula Mandapam by Veda pundits. He was honoured with a laminated photo of Lord, Theertha and Prasadam.

In February 2017 KCR had donated gold ornaments worth around Rs 5 crore to the Lord as a thanksgiving after the formation of Telangana state. KCR offered a golden garland studded with fossilised shells called "Saligram Haram" and a multi-layer gold necklace called "Makhara Kantabharanam", both weighing about 19 kg and worth about Rs 5 crore to the then temple Executive Officer, D Sambasiva Rao.