By Our Special Correspondent
Barring minor incidents the annual Chandanotsavam was held peacefully with thousands of devotees coming from different parts of the state having the Nija Roopa Darshanam of the sitting deity of Simhachalam temple, Narasimha Swamy. The devotees were allowed in after a gap of two years the corona season, when the temple remained shut down for large part and the Chandanotsavam was held without the devotes.
As per the centuries-old tradition, the hereditary trustee and former central minister Ashok Gajapati Raju, the scion of vizianagaram, had the first darshan of the Narsimha Swamy at about 2.30am on Tuesday.
Ashok also offered the silk robes to the deity. Endowments minister Kottu Satyanarayana offered silk robes on behalf of the government. Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundarajan flew in from Hyderabad to Visakhapatnam and offered prayers after having the darshan.
I am fortunate to have darshan of the Swamy the Governor told the media while at the temple. Later, the ministers, MPs and MLAs made a beeline to the temple along with their family members for the darshan. Tight security was evident when the temple organized the festival this time. Around 2,400 police personnel were deployed to man the security arrangements said police commissioner Srikanth, who personally supervised the security.
He said those who purchased tickets of Rs.1000 and Rs. 1200 were given two spells for the darshan. The first spell was from 4am to 6am and the second from 7am to 9am.
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