Gaja pooja for Jayalalithaa

Her partymen are taking to all forms of worship for her return as Chief Minister

March 30, 2015 12:00 am | Updated 10:52 am IST

Minister for Municipal Administration S.P.Velumani (second from left) and Coimbatore Mayor P.Rajkumar (left) participate in a 'Gaja Pooja' in Coimbatore, on Sunday.— Photo:M.Periasamy

Minister for Municipal Administration S.P.Velumani (second from left) and Coimbatore Mayor P.Rajkumar (left) participate in a 'Gaja Pooja' in Coimbatore, on Sunday.— Photo:M.Periasamy

It can’t get bigger than this. After defending his doctoral thesis on the ‘Emergence of Jayalalithaa as a mass leader’ last week, Coimbatore Mayor P. Rajkumar on Sunday performed Gaja pooja for her return as Chief Minister.

At his house on Sanganoor Road in Ganapathy, Mr. Rajkumar, who is also the party’s urban district secretary, performed the pooja at 8 a.m. in the presence of Municipal Administration Minister S.P. Velumani. MPs A.P. Nagaraj, A.K. Selvaraj, MLA O.K. Chinnaraj and scores of corporation councillors were present.

Five namboodris from the Sidhapudur Ayyappan Temple performed the pooja, which went on for over two-and-half hours at five yaga salas .

The curious crowd that thronged the venue had to be controlled by a team of policemen and volunteers. Sources said elephants were brought from Mangalamkunnu in Palakkad district after taking permission. Veterinarians were present to attend to emergencies, if any.

Chief priest Shivaprasad Namboodri said gaja pooja was performed in the belief that impediments would be removed and their prayer answered. Traditionally, the royals performed it in Kerala, he said.

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After getting nominated as a national spokesperson of the Congress, actor Kushboo seems to be on a roll. Recently, she hit out at BJP State president Tamilisai Soundararajan saying that the ‘Lotus’ is invisible beyond Tambaram. A retort came from unexpected quarters. Namathu MGR , the mouthpiece of the ruling AIADMK, countered her by saying that at least the ‘Lotus’ was visible till Tambaram, but the Congress existed only in the speeches of TNCC president EVKS Elangovan and Ms. Kushboo.

The column written by the common man went on to ridicule the factionalism in the TNCC and remarked that C.N. Annadurai had buried the Congress way back in 1967. Ms. Kushboo in her post on social networking sites said she never knew AIADMK was the mouthpiece of the BJP in Tamil Nadu.

And there were over thousand likes.

(Reporting byKarthik Madhavan,B. Aravind Kumar )

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