Former Union Minister and Congress MP Chinta Mohan will lead a delegation of Scheduled Caste (SC) devotees into the Tiruchanoor temple in Tirupati to celebrate the anniversary of the temple entry movement on October 13.

Mr. Mohan, who previously represented the Tirupati Lok Sabha constituency, cited reports in The Hindu documenting the historic legal defence by Congress leader C. Rajagopalachari (Rajaji). Rajaji appeared before Tirupati Court Judge V. Ramaswami Iyer in 1925 to secure the acquittal of C. Murugesan, an SC devotee who had been arrested for entering the inner sanctum of the Sri Padmavathi Ammavari temple in Tiruchanoor.

Thanking The Hindu for its extensive coverage of the case, Mr. Chinta Mohan said the legal arguments put forward by Rajaji led to the acquittal. “This resulted in Mahatma Gandhi later leading a group of 33 Dalit devotees into the Tiruchanoor temple,” he said.

To mark the centenary of the temple entry, a group of 33 SC devotees will enter the Tiruchanoor temple on October 13. He has invited religious and political leaders to join the historic celebration.

Mr. Mohan also accused the Election Commission of India of manipulating Lok Sabha elections using Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs). He also demanded a CBI probe against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar regarding voter deletion and the delimitation exercise.

He pointed out that Alladi Krishnaswamy Iyer originally introduced delimitation to balance representation between the northern and southern States. “Having more than 800 seats would ruin the social fabric and create great division between the northern and southern States,” he added.