Special prayers at Mahakaleshwar temple during President visit

UJJAIN: President Pranab Mukherjee will seek blessings at the famous Mahakaleshwar Temple here tomorrow as a part of his three-day visit to Madhya Pradesh where priests will perform special prayers on the occasion.

"Though we have not received any instructions from the President House for performing any special puja, we have made arrangements for conducting 'Sorsoktshar' pujan for the President, during which he along with the two main priests of the temple will be present inside the sanctum-sanctorum," Mahakaleshwar temple's main priest Ghanshyam Pujari told PTI.

"This puja will be performed for the peace and welfare of all," the priest said.

Temple administrator Jayant Joshi said the President would spend about half-an-hour at the religious site and elaborate arrangements have been made to welcome him.

Meanwhile, Inspector General Madhu Kumar said, "The President will spend a total of three-four hours in Ujjain. Half-an-hour is reserved for the President's temple visit."

He said nearly 1,000 policemen of various ranks have been deployed for the Presidential visit and have made alternate arrangements to avoid inconvenience to the people.

The Mahakaleshwar Jyotirlinga is one of the country's twelve 'Jyotirlingams', which are supposed to be the most sacred abodes of Shiva.

Mukherjee arrived in the state yesterday on a three-day visit and took part in several programmes in the state capital.

He will leave today for Jhoteshwar to inaugurate Shankracharya Netralaya and later take part in the first convocation of the Indira Gandhi Tribal University at Amarkantak in Anuppur district.

Tomorrow, the President will take part in the first convocation of the newly created Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) at Indore and later visit Ujjain for seeking blessings of Lord Mahakal.