Puttaparthi Sathya Sai Trust Chairman elections: Seeking to put up a united front, trustees of the Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust on Thursday asserted there is no difference of opinion among them and said the new chairman of the trust would be elected very soon. Election of chairman may happen next week when the trustees and council of management will meet.

There is no will of the Baba as far as we know nor did he have his successor in mind, the trustees said at their maiden press conference at the Sathya Sai Indoor Stadium on Thursday afternoon. "We have no individual vested interests. But, there are certain vested interests that are tring to defame the fair name of the Trust, its functionaries and the Trustees," the Trustees said. "We don't want to name anybody but there are efforts to defame us," said Trustee Venu Srinivasan, a former chairman of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), at the crowded press conference in the company of his other Trust colleagues."The Trust properties are for a specific purpose.

Every single piece of land owned by the Trust is for charitable purposes and the properties are not available for sale or commercial exploitation," he said.The Trust, henceforth, would be transparent and maintain the same values established by the Baba, he added.It was probably for the first time ever that Trustees of the Satya Sai Trust addressed a formal press conference."When Baba was alive, we never had an occasion to interact with the media," Srinivasan said.

Refuting reports that none of the Baba's family members was allowed into the ICU when he in the hospital, Ratnakar, a Trustee and Baba's nephew said: "All 27 days I was with him in ICU on behalf of the family. All members of the family could go once in a while and darshan of the Baba in ICU.On allegations against Baba's "caretaker" Satyajit, the Trustees said he was an ex-student of the Satya Sai Institute and the Baba chose him for some personal work, nothing more than that.Satyajit was with the Baba for 20 years as the latter chose him. But Baba never took a decision to induct Satyajit into the Trust."He is just an employee of the Trust," the Trustees pointed out.

Asked about the "differences" between him and Satyajit, Ratnakar said he had a "reasonable good relationship" with Satyajit. "There are no differences between us." Trust secretary and Baba's trusted aide K Chakravarthi said he quit Indian Administrative Service in 1981 and joined the Satya Sai Institute of Higher Learning as Registrar.Later he oversaw the implementation of the drinking water supply projects launched by the Trust."Subsequently, Baba wanted me to be the Secretary of the Trust.I am not a Trustee and only a secretary of the Trust. I am only a facilitator," Chakravarthi said.