President Ram Nath Kovind offered prayers at the hill shrine of Lord Venkateswara on Tuesday. He was accompanied by his wife Savita Kovind and daughter Swati Kovind.
The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) authorities and priests received Mr. Kovind with the traditional ‘Isti kapal’ honours on his arrival at the main temple complex and led him to the sanctum sanctorum.
The President offered prayers to the presiding deity and spent about 10 minutes in the sanctum sanctorum.
The chief priest honoured Mr. Kovind with the ‘Sesha Vastram’ and explained him about the significance of the deity and the temple. The President also visited the other small temples on the premises and offered prayers at Bhu Varaha Swamy temple.
The priests also showered ‘Vedasirvachanam’ on the President. The TTD officials presented him diaries, calendar, a memento and laddu prasadam.
TTD Chairman Y.V. Subba Reddy, EO K.S. Jawahar Reddy, Additional EO A.V. Dharma Reddy, DIG Kranti Rana Tata, CVSO Gopinath Jatti, SP Avula Ramesh Reddy among others were present.
Mr. Kovind also offered prayers at Padmavathi temple at Tiruchanur.
Earlier in the day, the President was received by Governor Biswa Bhusan Harichandan and Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy at Tirupati airport. Deputy Chief Minister K. Narayana Swamy, Ministers M. Goutham Reddy, Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy, MP V. Vijaya Sai Reddy and others were also present on the occasion.
Tight security
Chittoor Collector Bharat Narayana Gupta encountered embarrassing moments when the TTD security personnel at the biometric gate at the main temple refused to allow him into the shrine during Mr. Kovind’s visit. The security personnel allowed him only after the intervention by the senior police officials.
