At 6.56 a.m. on July 1, under skies overcast with monsoon clouds, the Jagannath temple in Ahmedabad was packed to capacity. The Gujarat Chief Minister, along with the temple’s head priest, swept the ground with golden brooms and cleared the path for Lord Jagannath’s main chariot. Traditionally, the king of the state would have had the honour, but that tradition is now followed by the Chief Minister. The devotees soon pulled the chariot to start the 18-km procession in the Old City, through communally sensitive areas such as Jamalpur, Kalupur, Shahpur and Dariyapur before returning to the temple — the full-fledged event is taking place after two years of a pandemic-induced break.
More than 25,000 police and other security personnel kept vigil during the yatra. For the first time, the police used a helicopter and one motorised glider for aerial surveillance.
“This year, we celebrated the yatra with pomp and show with accompanying orchestra and to give a glamorous touch to the function,” a city-based businessman Rauf Sheikh Bengali said.
In tableaux, artists paid tributes to cricket legend Shane Warne, COVID care centres and themes of contemporary relevance.
