Balapur laddu fetches 18.9 lakh

Hyderabad: Hyderabad's most popular gold-coated Balapur Ganesh laddu weighing 21 kg was auctioned on Sunday for a whopping Rs 18.9 lakh. It was placed in a 2-kg silver plate.

It was a joint bid by Marri Shashank Reddy, COO Abacus Overseas Education Private Ltd, and his business partner YSRCP MLC R V Ramesh Yadav from Kadapa. This signifies that though people of the two Telugu States got divided on geographical lines they are one at heart.

This auction also has great importance as Ramesh wanted to give the laddu as a gift to Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on the occasion when the party had swept the MPTC and ZPTC polls.

Several politicians were present to witness the auction, including Telangana Education Minister P Sabitha Indra Reddy and former MLA T Krishna Reddy.

The Balapur laddu had fetched Rs 1.3 lakh more than the previous (2019) year. Marri Shashank Reddy is a resident of Nadergul. During the previous occasion, K Ram Reddy had won the laddu by bidding Rs 17.6 lakh.

The auction of laddu was taken up in the main street of Balapur and as many as 25 participants, including former MLA Teegala Krishna Reddy tried their luck. The auction was completed within a period of five minutes.

The auction was started with an initial price of Rs 1,116 and the price shot up to Rs 15 lakh. The three bidders Shashank Reddy, Narender and Srikanth Reddy competed. The auction of the laddu was organised under the aegis of the Balapur Ganesh Utsav Samithi, which has been taking up this for the last 27 years. First time the laddu was auctioned for Rs 450 (1984).