5 lakh laddus weighing 250 quintals set to leave Ujjain for Ayodhya on Friday

Ujjain: Four lakh laddus have already been packed and one lakh more are being put in packets at the revered Mahakaleshwar temple here to be sent on Friday to Ayodhya for the consecration of the grand Ram temple on January 22, a shrine official said on Thursday.

Each of the laddus weighs about 50 grams and the entire consignment will be of 250 quintals, he said. “We have packed four lakh laddus. One lakh are being packed today. They will be off to Ayodhya in three to four trucks on Friday,” the Mahakaleshwar Temple assistant administrator Moolchand Junwal told PTI over the phone.

Janwal said that 150 temple staffers and people from social organisations prepared the laddus over five days after MP Chief Minister Mohan Yadav announced that the sweet balls would be sent to Ayodhya, 900 km away, as prasad of “Baba Mahakal”. He said there was a special unit on the Mahakal shrine premises that prepared the laddus.

Speaking to reporters in Bhopal on January 12, Yadav had said, “We are going to send five lakh laddus from the famous Mahakaleshwar Mandir, Ujjain, to Ayodhya for the consecration ceremony of the Ram temple on January 22.” Yadav said Mughal emperor Babar had demolished the temple in Ayodhya. Now that it has been rebuilt, how can Madhya Pradesh be left behind in celebrating the occasion, he had asked.

Neighbouring Chhattisgarh has sent 300 tons of the finest variety of aromatic rice from the state to Ayodhya for the consecration ceremony of the Ram temple.