Leaders of All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) from Vellore district of Tamil Nadu embarked on a thanksgiving visit to the temple of Lord Sri Venkateswara in fulfilment of a vow on Monday, after the successful release of their party leader J. Jayalalithaa in the disproportionate assets case.
The contingent of around 100 leaders and activists started early Monday morning at Vellore, located 100 km from Tirupati, and reached Alipiri, the foot of Tirumala hills, where they offered food packets to 1,067 devotees trekking to Tirumala.
“The number ‘67’ after 1,000 refers to Amma’s age and we want her to stay hale and hearty to lead Tamil Nadu forever,” S.R.K. Appu, former Secretary of the party’s Vellore East District unit told The Hindu at Alipiri.
The team later trekked up the hills, which incidentally is the seventh time ever since Ms. Jayalalithaa stepped down as the Chief Minister around six months ago, after the trial court indicted her in the case. They also broke 1,067 coconuts at ‘Akhilandam’ point in front of the temple.
The leaders are also getting prepared a silver idol of ‘Amma’ weighing one kilogram, to be offered to the Tirumala temple. This is in tune with the age-old practice of offering into the ‘Hundi’ tiny silver sheets with icons of eyes, limbs, ear etc. embedded on them praying for curing ailments in the respective body parts.
