Shah pays obeisance at Baba Baidyanath temple in Jharkhand’s Deoghar

Union Home Minister Amit Shah arrived in Jharkhand’s Deoghar on Saturday and paid obeisance at the famed Baba Baidyanath temple.

He performed special prayers at the temple, which is one of the 12 jyotirlingas, a senior BJP leader said.

A team of priests assisted the Union home minister in performing the prayers amid tight security in the temple complex. Baidyanath Temple Panda Dharmarakshini Sabha general secretary Kartik Nath Thakur said Shah performed a special ‘panchopachar’ puja.

He is later scheduled to lay the foundation stone of a Rs 450-crore nano urea plant complex of IFFCO, an official statement said.

Shah will then address the ‘Vijay Sankalp Rally’ of the BJP, an opposition party in Jharkhand.

He will also be participating in the centenary celebrations of Ramakrishna Mission Vidyapeeth in Deoghar, the statement said.

Shah’s visit is considered crucial in view of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and assembly polls due next year.

He had visited Chaibasa in January and called upon the Hemant Soren government to stop infiltrators from other countries, who he said were ”out to grab land in Jharkhand by marrying tribal women”.

The saffron party, in alliance with AJSU Party, had bagged 12 of the 14 Lok Sabha seats in the state in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, while the Congress and JMM bagged one constituency each.