Kanchi seer, Naidu inaugurate Maha Pushkaralu in AP

Rajahmundry: Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu inaugurated Godavari Maha Pushkaralu at 6.26 am on Tuesday. The 12-day Pushkaralu will conclude on July 25. Earlier, Kanchi senior seer Jayendra Saraswathi Swamiji took a holy dip in River Godavari after Vedic scholars from Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) offered prayers to the river. Later, Chandrababu Naidu took holy dip in the river along with his wife Bhuvaneswari, son Lokesh and family members of former chief minister and TDP founder N T Rama Rao. Subsequently, the Chief Minister performed Pindapradhanam to his ancestors and conducted Godana programme.

Ministers N Chinarajappa, P Narayana, Devineni Umamaheswara Rao, Palle Raghunatha Reddy, Kamineni Srinivasa Rao, P Manikyala Rao and Ch Ayyannapathrudu also took holy dip in the river.

Meanwhile, thousands of pilgrims started to arrive from all parts of the country and congregated at several ghats in Rajahmundry including Kotilingala Ghat and Pushkar Ghat.

At the beginning, a large number of pilgrims congregated at Pushkar Ghat from early hours of Tuesday leaving other ghats relatively less populated. But, after the tragedy that took place at the Pushkar Ghat, the traffic was shifted to the longest bathing ghat in the country, Kotilingala Ghat. The incident of stampede at the Pushkar Ghat did not affect the passage of devotees into the other ghats and the devotees rush continued throughout the day.

An estimated 10.14 lakh pilgrims took holy dip in River Godavari on the opening day of Maha Pushkaralu or Maha Kumbh Mela in Andhra Pradesh on Tuesday. Over half of them have used the 15 ghats set up by the State government, spread over the bustling historic city of Rajahmundry.