By Express News Service

HYDERABAD: Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and his spiritual guru, Chinna Jeeyar Swamy, kicked up a row on Thursday when the former’s family moved into a newly built magnificent official residence, located at Begumpet here.

Much to the dismay of various dignitaries, who were present at the housewarming ceremony held at 5.22 AM, Chinna Jeeyar Swamy, Hindu pontiff, sat on the official chair of the chief minister even as CM KCR and his wife were standing.

The seer, who has been the philosophical adviser to the chief minister for the past 30 years, at first solemnised the housewarming ceremony. Amid chanting of Vedic hymns by various priests headed by Jeeyar Swamy, the CM and his wife Shobha entered the sprawling Vasthu-compliant official bungalow.

Later, after reaching the official chambers of the CM in the palatial building, which spreads across one lakh square feet on the 9-acre land, adjacent to the existing camp office of the CM, Chinna Jeeyar Swamy was requested to occupy the official chair of the CM. None other than the chief minister himself urged the hesitating pontiff to sit on his official chair. Chinna Jeeyar Swamy, who at first politely refused to occupy the CM’s gadde, after persistent pleas, sat on the chair.

Soon after, the video clipping of Swamiji sitting on the CM’s chair has been going viral on social networking sites.

WATCH

“If it took at least 13 long years for the TRS boss KCR to occupy the CM’s gadde, for the Swamiji it took just a few seconds to sit on the official chair of the CM,” a comment posted by a netizen on a social networking site, says.

Telangana governor ESL Narasimhan and his wife Vimala Narasimhan, ministers and others were present at the opening ceremony of CM’s new official residence-cum-camp office, named ‘Pragati Bhavan’.

The newly-built mansion, constructed at a cost of Rs 40 crore, has all modern facilities including high security bullet-proof glass in the windows of all the rooms.

The CM and his son KT Rama Rao who is the information technology minister are expected to reside in the posh bungalow which is equipped with CCTV cameras with Internet Protocol (IP) facility for carrying out round-the-clock internet surveillance as per the recommendations of intelligence department. Armed security personnel have begun guarding the CM’s new official residence, which has a tall compound wall.

KCR has already been under fire for constructing a luxurious and palatial official residence for himself by abandoning another posh mansion, which was built during YS Rajasekhara Reddy’s regime before the bifurcation. Opposition parties such as Congress, TDP, BJP and Left have been attacking the CM for his penchant for construction of new buildings to suit his Vaastu beliefs.

“At a time when people are suffering because of the problems created by the demonetisation issue, CM KCR is busy moving into a newly built luxurious building for himself. The cost of the CM’s new house would be nearly Rs 150 crore, if land price is also taken into account,” TPCC chief N Uttam Kumar Reddy criticised.

“KCR is wasting public money to satisfy his Vaastu beliefs, not giving any attention to the fact that several welfare schemes such as Aarogya Sri and Fee Reimbursement have taken a beating because of non-allocation of funds. Now, he is all set to demolish the existing secretariat building only to construct a Vaastu-compliant posh complex,” TDP Telangana unit president L Ramana said.