Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu. File
| Photo Credit: ANI
The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) firmly endorsed the statement made by Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu in September 2024 that the ghee used by Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) for making Laddus contained animal fat.
It said in a press release that the CM’s statement was not merely a political comment but a factual disclosure based on the July 2024 test report of the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB)‘s Centre of Analysis & Learning in Livestock and Food (CALF).
Even the TTD chairman B.R. Naidu has categorically highlighted the same NDDB CALF test report in his press meet on January 30, 2026.
The party pointed out that the NDDB was a statutory institution established under an Act of Parliament, and the CALF laboratory was accredited by the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories under ISO/IEC 17025, which is the gold standard for forensic and food testing credibility in India.
The CALF report confirmed the presence of animal fat and vegetable oil in the ghee supplied to TTD for the aforementioned purpose and it has been explicitly cited in the CBI’s supplementary charge sheet.
The TDP release said the CBI has documented systemic corruption, manipulation of procurement processes, and deliberate compromise of quality controls, which exposed how sacred offerings were reduced to commodities for profiteering.
“Adulteration of the Laddus is not an accident or administrative lapse but the outcome of institutionalised negligence and patronage of the corrupt as detailed by investigators,” the TDP added.
Published – January 31, 2026 02:18 pm IST
