Devnarayan Jayanti: PM Modi attends 1111th birth anniversary of Lord Devnarayan in Rajasthan's Bhilwara

The Prime Minister will spend over an hour at the birth anniversary celebrations of Lord Devnarayan in Malaseri Village Panchayat.

Bhilwara:Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Rajasthan's Bhilwara district on a one-day visit on Saturday for the 1111th birth anniversary celebrations of Lord Devnarayan, the deity of the Gurjar community. The programme is held at Malaseri Gram Panchayat of Asind Panchayat Samiti here.

He reached Lord Devnarayan's birthplace at 11:25 am and performed Purnahuti in Vishnu Mahayagya after which he is expected to address a huge gathering. From 11.30 am to 12.45 pm, PM Modi will attend the 1111th incarnation festival of Lord Devnarayanji as a chief guest. He will leave for Bhilwara from Malaseri Dungri helipad at 1 pm. Then at 1.55 pm, a special flight is scheduled to take the PM from Udaipur airport to Delhi airport. Modi was invited to grace the occasion of Lord Devanarayan's birth, who is believed to have been born 1111 years ago on the seventh day of Sukhla Pkash of Magh month.

According to a BJP state functionary, "the PM was invited to attend a programme on the 1111th birth anniversary of Lord Devnarayan. Malaseri is the birthplace of Lord Devanarayan. And this is where the PM's programme was proposed." PM Modi will stay from 11.30 a.m. to 1.30 a.m., that is, for 2 hours. During this, he will visit Lord Devnarayan at Malaseri Dungri. He will also address a gathering of about 2,00,000 people to be organised there, the functionary said.

The word around political corridors is that Modi's visit to the Gurjar-dominated have to be seen in the context of the Assembly elections scheduled here later this year. Since the Gurjar community has a huge vote bank in Rajasthan, political experts believe that the PM's visit is part of the exercise of gaining political mileage.

Gurjars hold the electoral key in about 12 Lok Sabha constituencies and around 45 Assembly seats. The saffron party has 25 LS MPs from the state. One of them- Sukhbir Singh Jaunapuria is from Gurjar community. Keeping this in mind, the BJP is trying to woo the Gurjar voters in its favour. It is believed that PM Modi's visit to Mewar region will have a cascading effect in many districts of Rajasthan as well as with the Gurjar community across the state.