Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan on Saturday gifted an elephant to the Guruvayur Sreekrishna Temple.
As there are restrictions on gifting new elephants to the temple, he symbolically offered an elephant already owned by the temple by paying a fee of Rs. 5 lakh.
Accompanied by his wife Amita Chavan and other relatives, Mr. Chavan offered to the deity an elephant named Gopi Kannan.
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Gopi Kannan had won an elephant race (‘Anayottam') held in the temple last year.
Earlier, Mr. Chavan was received at the temple town by Devaswom chairman Thottathil Ravindran, Administrator K. N. Raji, Deputy
Admninistrator T. V. Somasundaran and Temple Accommodation Manager P. Krishnankutty. Security in and around the temple was beefed up in connection with Mr. Chavan's visit. Deputy Superintendent of Police P. Radhakrishnan supervised security arrangements.
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Mr. Chavan left Guruvayur around 9.30 a.m. The Guruvayur Devaswom keeps 65 elephants.