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The party pointed out that the CBI has recorded instances of systemic corruption, manipulation in procurement procedures and deliberate dilution of quality checks.
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The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) on Friday strongly condemned what it described as a “false narrative” being spread around the Tirumala laddu issue and unequivocally stood by Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu’s September 2024 statement on the presence of animal fat in laddu ghee, asserting that it was based entirely on facts and official records.
In a statement, the TDP said the Chief Minister’s remarks were not political commentary but a fact-based disclosure grounded in a July 2024 test report by the National Dairy Development Board’s CALF laboratory.
The party noted that NDDB is a statutory institution established under an Act of Parliament and that its CALF laboratory is NABL-accredited under ISO/IEC 17025, which it described as the gold standard for forensic and food testing credibility in India.
According to the party, the report clearly confirmed the presence of animal fat and vegetable oil in the ghee supplied for Tirumala laddus.
The TDP further highlighted that the same NDDB-CALF report has been explicitly cited in the supplementary chargesheet filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation.
The party said the chargesheet documents systemic corruption, manipulation of procurement processes, and deliberate compromise of quality controls, exposing how sacred offerings were allegedly reduced to commodities for profiteering. These findings, the TDP stressed, are part of the official record of a central investigative agency and not merely allegations made by the party.
Stating that the facts now make the issue “unmistakably clear,” the TDP alleged that the previous administration presided over a system in which corruption extended even to matters of Hindu faith.
The party said the adulteration of laddus, consumed by crores of devotees across the country, was not an accident or an administrative lapse but the outcome of institutionalised negligence and corrupt patronage, as detailed by investigators.
The TDP also condemned what it termed desperate attempts by the opposition to deflect attention from the CBI’s findings and rewrite the narrative.
It said those who enabled or benefited from the alleged corruption must answer why devotees’ faith was compromised and public trust betrayed, adding that moral responsibility lay with those who controlled the system at the time.
Reiterating that Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu’s statement was backed by science and evidence, the party said the CBI report has cited what the TDP has consistently maintained.
It also pointed out that BR Naidu, Chairman of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams, had categorically highlighted the same NDDB-CALF test reports in his media address on January 30.
Tirumala, India, India
January 31, 2026, 11:57 IST
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