Meeting to select Baba's successor ends inconclusively

A crucial meeting to elect the next Chairman of the Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust ended inconclusively on Sunday after the members could not arrive on a consensus candidate.

However, the Trustees and Council of Management put up a united face before media persons and said that the next chairman, to succeed Sri Satya Sai Baba who passed away on April 24, would be chosen after his 10th day rituals take place on May 4.

The meeting was attended by five members of the Trust, who asserted that there were no differences among them.

According to sources, the Trustees and Council of Management will meet again on May 7 or May 8 to select the next chairman. Sources say that the members also discussed the issue of who could be given the powers to sign the Trust cheques.

A day after the Satya Sai Baba was laid to rest in the Sai Kulwanth Hall in Puttaparthi town on Wednesday, the Trustees had said at their maiden press conference at the Satya Sai Indoor Stadium that there was no Will left behind by the seer, ‘as far as they know.’

The Trustees also said that they had no knowledge if the godman had any successor in mind.

The Trustees had also said that Satya Sai Baba’s personal caretaker Satyajit was just an employee of the Trust and had been chosen to carry out the personal work of the seer. “He is nothing more than that,” the Trustees had said.