President prays at Yadadri temple in Telangana

President Pranab Mukherjee on Sunday prayed to Lord Narasimha Swamy at the Yadadri temple in Telangana.

Accompanied by his son Abhijit Mukherjee, he took part in various rituals at the hill shrine in Nalgonda district.

The president, on a southern sojourn, reached Yadadri by helicopter.

Telangana and Andhra Ptadesh Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan and Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao accompanied Mukherjee to the temple, until recently known as Yadgirigutta.

Chandrasekhar Rao briefed Mukherjee of his government's plans to develop the temple on par with Tirumala.

The visit to Yadadri was not in the original schedule of the president.

Mukherjee, who visited Tirumala temple in Andhra Pradesh last week, is the fourth Indian president to visit Yadagirigutta.

First president Rajendra Prasad visited the temple in 1959 and Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan in 1963. Shankar Dayal Sharma prayed at Yadgirigutta in 1995.