Kathmandu, Oct 28 (IANS): Nepal's Maoist Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai Friday broke away from the official policy of his once underground organisation not to participate in religious rituals by taking part in Brothers' Day celebrations.

The 57-year-old scholar, known to keep a low profile in the boisterous party programmes where Maoist chief Pushpa Kamal Dahal is in his element shaking a leg to popular folk tunes, turned up at the residence of his younger brother Shiva Prasad Bhattarai in Kathmandu Friday to participate in the Hindu festival of Bhai Tika.

His elder sister Khirkumari Parajuli and younger sister Parvati Ghimire prayed for the long life of their two brothers, putting the sacred tika - elaborate daubs of paint - on their foreheads and offering them sweets and home-cooked delicacies.

Shiva Prasad, an official at the state-run Nepal Electricity Authority, bears a striking resemblance to his distinguished elder brother. During the Maoist insurgency, when the top rebel leaders carried a price on their heads, he was often detained by security forces on the mistaken assumption that he was the wanted Maoist leader.

The prime minister's daughter Manushi, a Maoist student leader and an only child, also took part in the festivities, offering tika to her cousins.

Bhai Tika marks the end of the elaborate five-day Tihar festival in Nepal that corresponds to South Asia's Festival of Lights but as its unique characteristic also sees the worship of the crow and the dog.

In the past, the most eminent person receiving the tika used to be deposed king Gyanendra. Television stations used to air scenes of the former king receiving an elaborate tika from his only surviving sister Shobha Shahi.

Most of Gyanendra's siblings were wiped out in the royal palace massacre in 2001 that marked the beginning of the end of Nepal's nearly 250-year-old monarchy.

Marking the importance of Bhai Tika, the authorities in Kathmandu allow the doors of a temple to open only on this occasion.

The Bal Gopal temple in Kathmandu's Rani Pokhari area, dedicated to Hindu god Krishna when he was a child with supernatural powers, lies on a pond said to have been built by King Pratap Malla, who ruled in the 17th century.

A narrow bridge leads to the temple that remains closed all other days of the year.

On Bhai Tika, however, women volunteers gather at the temple to offer the tika to men who have no sisters or have sisters living abroad.