Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered prayers and performed thulabharam ritual (a special offering where he was weighed against lotus flowers) at Lord Krishna temple in Guruvayur in Kerala on Saturday.
Attired in typical Kerala style ‘mundu’ (dhoti) and ‘angavastra’, the Prime Minister arrived at the temple at 10.15 am.
Modi, who became the Prime Minister for a second time, had expressed his desire to offer ‘Thulabharam’ for which temple authorities had brought 100 kg of flowers from Tamil Nadu.
Modi, spent a few minutes in front of main deity Lord Krishna and went around Ganapathi and Bhagavathi temple. He offered ghee, fruits and flowers to the deitites.
Main priest Vasudevan Namboodiri offered Modi ‘prasadam’. He spent around 30 minutes inside the temple. According to authorities, he had paid about Rs 40,000 for various poojas.
Earlier, Modi visited Guruvayur temple in 2008 when he was Gujarat chief minister. This time, he visited the temple to pay obeisance after the massive victory of the Bharatriya Janata Party in the Lok Sabha elections.
Modi was accompanied by Kerala Governor P Sathasivam, Union minister of state for external affairs and parliamentary affairs V. Muraleedharan and state minister for temple affairs Katakambally Surendran.
Later, the Prime Minister spent some time at the guest house where he met devaswam authorities and discussed about the master plan for the temple town. The Devaswam has submitted a memorandum for a 450 crore development plan for facilities of the town.
