Ahmedabad, July 16 (IANS) Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah performed the mangala aarti and offered prayers to Lord Jagannath at the historic Shree Jagannath Mandir in the Jamalpur area of Ahmedabad on Thursday, marking the beginning of the city’s 149th annual Jagannath Rath Yatra.

Shah arrived at the temple in the early hours of the morning and participated in the traditional pre-dawn Mangala Aarti before having darshan of Lord Jagannath.

The ritual is among the first ceremonies of Rath Yatra day and precedes the departure of the three chariots carrying the idols of Lord Jagannath, Lord Balabhadra and Devi Subhadra.

Thousands of devotees gathered at the temple to witness the religious ceremonies before the procession commenced.

Senior state government officials, temple authorities and police officers were also present as preparations for the yatra entered their final stage.

The annual Jagannath Rath Yatra, held on Ashadhi Bij, begins from the nearly 400-year-old Shree Jagannathji Mandir in the Jamalpur area and passes through several parts of Ahmedabad before returning to the temple later in the day.

Considered the second-largest Jagannath Rath Yatra in India after the procession in Puri, the event attracts lakhs of devotees from Gujarat and other parts of the country each year.

Shah has regularly attended the Mangala Aarti at the Ahmedabad temple in previous years, continuing a long-standing tradition of offering prayers before the commencement of the procession.

This year’s yatra is being held amid extensive security arrangements. Gujarat Police have deployed more than 31,000 personnel, supported by drones, artificial intelligence-enabled surveillance, thousands of CCTV cameras and body-worn cameras to monitor the 16-km procession route.

Civic authorities have also made elaborate arrangements for crowd management, sanitation, medical services and emergency response to facilitate the smooth conduct of one of Gujarat’s most significant annual religious events.

–IANS

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