Daijiworld Media Network
Kedarnath, May 18: Five days ahead of the election results, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday May 18 offered prayers at the Kedarnath shrine nestled in Garhwal Himalayas of Uttarakhand.
Modi who offered prayers at Kedarnath temple, was photographed meditating in a holy cave donning saffron robes.
The PM is on a two-day visit to Uttarakhand. He arrived at Dehradun's Jolly Grant airport and took a helicopter to Kedarnath. He will visit the Badrinath shrine on Sunday May 19 and later head back to Delhi in the afternoon.
Alighting from the chopper, he headed straight to the holy shrine, where he offered special prayers to Lord Shiva. Other devotees were not allowed to enter the temple during this time. The temple opens to devotees at 4 am daily.
Modi later took an all-terrain vehicle to go around and review the reconstruction work in Kedarnath, which was extensively damaged in the June 2013 deluge. Uttarakhand Chief Secretary Utpal Kumar Singh briefed him about the restoration work. The state's BJP handle also shared a video of PM Modi, dressed in traditional pahari clothes speaking to officials about the ongoing project.
Later in the afternoon, Modi undertook a trecherous trek to spend some time meditating at a cave called 'Dhyan Kutia'. Following heavy rain and cold, arrangements for umbrellas and benches for sitting were made on the trek.
The pictures of the PM meditating are doing rounds on social media and were first shared by the BJP Uttarakhand handle on Twitter.
The PM’s visit comes a day before the final phase of Lok Sabha polls which will be held on May 19. The results will be announced on May 23.
Meanwhile, a picture of PM Modi dressed in the pahari clothes and walking on a red carpet during his visit to Kedarnath, has left twitterati questioning ‘why the red carpet treatment in a temple’.
Some were quick to draw parallels of Modi’s dress and red carpet walk with the ongoing Cannes Film Festival, while others wondered at the presence of camera crew during the PM's meditation.
This is the Prime Minister's fourth visit to Kedarnath, which is perched up at a height of 11,657 feet and is surrounded by snow-clad peaks, in the past two years.
In 2017, he visited it once in May after its gate were opened following a six-month winter break and again in October, before the temple again closed for the winter. He last offered prayers at the temple on Diwali in November.