Kolan family bags Balapur laddu

Balapur: The Kolan family for the 9th time bagged the prestigious Balapur Ganesh laddu for Rs 17.6 lakh in the auction held before the procession started for the 26th year on Thursday. The last time the family won the bidding was in 2011. This year, the laddu which remains most coveted once again made a new record with a hike of one more lakh compared to the previous year of Rs 16.6 lakhs and was bagged by Kolan Rami Reddy.

The auction for the laddu was started by the Balapur Ganesh Utsav Samithi for 26th time in its history of this tradition. A total of 19 members participated in the bidding process. It began with the initial bidding amount of Rs 1,116 from the committee's side and it reached Rs 17.6 lakhs within 10 minutes time. Bhagyanagar Ganesh Utsav Samithi, General Secretary Dr Bhagawanth Rao, Maheshwaram MLA, P Sabita Indra Reddy and others were present during bidding.

Ever since the tradition started in 1994, the Kolan family has remained an important element of the bidding. Kolan Mohan Reddy had won laddu for Rs 450 in the first bidding and the family won 5 times in a row, till 2011. Altogether they won it for 9 times in these 26 years. The laddu gradually became famous as many businessmen, leaders and politicians started to participate each year in the auction and in this 26-year of history the only woman winner of the auction was Saritha who had won for Rs 5.10 lakh in 2009.