Hyderabad, September 12: Sentiment seems to have played a major role in laddu auctions this year. A laddu offered to Ganesh by a private housing firm in Ameerpet fetched Rs 9.10 lakhs in an auction, perhaps the highest for a laddu this year, on Sunday.
VVR Housing Pvt Ltd chief executive officer (Marketing) T Srinivas bought the Ganesh laddu weighing 59 kgs for Rs 9.10 lakhs in the auction held at its head office in Ameerpet. In 2010, three employees of the firm had bought laddu for Rs 6.50 lakhs. The firm has announced that the bid amount (Rs 9.10 lakhs) would be donated to the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund’ (CMRF).
After Ameerpet, Badangpet laddu managed to get Rs 6.20 lakhs. A realtor, P Venkat Reddy, from Badangpet village bought the 21-kg laddu for Rs 6.20 lakhs in an open auction . It was for the fourth time (2005, 2006 and 2007), the realtor had successfully bid for the laddu. In 2010, one G Narasimha had taken the sweet home for Rs 5.65 lakhs. “I have strong belief that the laddu ensures success in my real estate business,” P Venkat Reddy told.
Thousands of people, including people from surrounding villages, reached the venue by 6 am to witness the auction. “I am happy we bid successfully for the laddu. We had a bumper yield after we sprinkled the laddu in our fields. I will distribute the laddu to my kin and sprinkle it my agricultural fields again this year,” 55-year-old K Mohan Reddy told.
In another auction near near BJP office in Kukatpally, an NRI, B Prakash Rao, bought the laddu for Rs 2.70 lakhs. In 2010, a bidder paid Rs 2.55 lakhs for it.
Though a 2,200 kg laddu was offered to the 52-feet Khairatabad Ganesh, the organisers , as always, did not conduct any auction . They distributed it among devotees.
–Agencies