The most popular auction, the 'Balapur Ganesh Laddu' was auctioned this year at an all-time record of Rs 35 lakh in an open auction held today, the highest ever in the last 31 years. The 21-kg famed laddu was bagged by Lingala Dasarad Goud, a local resident from Karmanghat. This is Rs 5 lakh more than the previous auction held in 2024.
The auction amount was paid on the spot to the Balapur Ganesh Utsava Committee. However, in last year, the laddu was bagged by Kolan Shanker Reddy at Rs 30,01,000 while in 2023, Dayanand Reddy bought the laddu for Rs 27 lakh. A total of 38 persons participated in the laddu auction. The excitement surrounding the Balapur Ganesh laddu auction in the old city attracted thousands of devotees from across the state, with many tuning in to their televisions.
The bidding for the laddu was conducted at around 10.35 am after the morning pooja and the exercise was completed in a span of less than 15 minutes. Local leaders, businessmen and devotees participated with the winning bidder considered blessed for the year ahead. Proceeds from the auction are used by the Balapur Ganesh Utsav committee for welfare and community activities.
The Samithi has been organising the auction since 1994. Amid loud cheers of Ganpati Bappa Moriya by hundreds of devotees, the participants in the open auction bid for the laddu. The auction of the laddu marks the beginning of the centralised Ganesh immersion procession from Balapur, city outskirts of Hyderabad. The first bidding took place in 1994 when Kolan Mohan Reddy secured for Rs 450, and next year same person by making it Rs 4,500.
In 1996, Kolan Krishna Reddy took for Rs 18,000 but the demand increased reaching Rs 1,05,000 in 2002 by Kondade Madhav. In 2015 the auction bidding reached seven digit, when Kallen Madhan Mohan Reddy took the laddu for 10,32,000. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the organizers banned the laddu auction for the preventive reasons and the same laddu has been gifted to the then Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao. (UNI)