Stage is set for the 140th annual Lord Jagannath Rath Yatra to be taken out here tomorrow, with Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani and leaders from BJP and Congress offering prayers at the temple on its eve.
The procession, led by a chariot with the statue of Lord Jagannath, his brother Balbhadra and sister Goddess Subhadra, covers around 15 kilometres route on the auspicious day every year before returning to the temple located in Jamalpur area here.
Rupani, accompanied by deputy CM Nitin Patel, today offered prayers at the Lord Jagannath Temple.
They will again perform Pahind ceremony (symbolic cleaning of road ahead of the Yatra) at 7 am before the yatra commences.
Separately, Congress leaders Bharatsinh Solanki, party’s Gujarat in-charge Ashok Gehlot, and senior leader Shankersinh Vaghela also offered their prayers at the temple.
Temple sources said Prime Minister Narendra Modi also sent his offering to the temple, something he has been doing since several years.
The massive yatra is taken out every year on the second day of Asadhi Bij, or the second day of the month of Asadh as per the Hindu calendar.
This time, the procession will have 18 elephants, 101 trucks, 30 akhadas, 18 bhajan mandalis and 7 cars, organisers have said.
The procession will also see unprecedented security cover to avoid any untoward incident as the roughly 1.5 kilometre long procession passes through some of the communally sensitive pockets.
Over 20,000 policemen and other uniformed men will be deployed along the route of the yatra, with a company of National Security Guard being deployed for the first time.
