Adityanath skips Ram Navami ritual at Gorakhanth math

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minster Yogi Adityanath on Thursday skipped a Ram Navami ritual at his Gorakhnath math' due to the lockdown to contain coronavirus.

However, the kanya pujan was performed with a limited gathering of math' employees, and the management said social distancing was maintained.

In the absence of Adityanath', who is the head of the 'math', the kanya pujan, was led by the temple's chief pujari Yogi Kamalnath.

Even after becoming chief minister, Adityanath has been leading the ritual, which reveres the girl child as a manifestation of Goddess Durga.

Due to the coronavirus outbreak, some changes were made in the traditional kanya pujan programme this time, senior temple staffer Dwarika Tiwari said.

He said girls children of staff based in the math complex -- were given a dakshina' (offering), food and a chunri (scarf).

A photo showed three girls at the ceremony.

On March 19, before the nationwide lockdown was announced, Adityanath had appealed to people to celebrate Ram Navami at their homes.

But he received flak when he attended a March 25 ceremony to shift the Ram Lalla idol in Ayodhya to a temporary spot, making way for the construction of the Ram temple at the Ram Janmabhoomi site.

Though the Ayodhya event was not open to public and only a small group of people attended, Opposition parties said it sent a wrong message when a lockdown had just been imposed on the country.

Earlier, Adityanath skipped Gorakhpur's Narsingh shobha yatra held on Holi, which he traditionally leads through the city as the Gorakhnath head.