President Murmu to offer prayers at Sabarimala Lord Ayyappa temple

Pathanamthitta(Kerala), Oct 22 I President Droupadi Murmu will offer prayers at the Lord Ayyappa temple in Sabarimala on Wednesday.

The President will travel from Pamba to Sannidhanam in a convoy of four-wheel drive vehicles. She is the first woman head of state to visit the Lord Ayyappa shrine at Sabarimala here for offering prayers.

Murmu is also the second president to visit the shrine as before her, former President V V Giri had visited Sabarimala in the 1970s and had travelled to the shrine in a dolly.

President Murmu will travel to the shrine in a convoy of five four-wheel-drive vehicles of the Kerala Police, accompanied by an ambulance, along the 4.5-km-long Swami Ayyappan Road and traditional trekking route to Sannidhanam.

She will arrive Pamba by road from the Rajiv Gandhi Indoor Stadium at Pramadam here where she reached by helicopter at 8.40 am.

She was greeted at Pramadam by state Devaswom Minister V N Vasavan, Pathanamthitta MP Anto Antony and others.

The President's convoy departed from the Raj Bhavan in Thiruvananthapuram for the airport at 7.25 am.

After the Sabarimala darshan, she will return to Thiruvananthapuram in the evening. On Thursday, she will unveil a bust of former President K R Narayanan at the Raj Bhavan.

Later, she will inaugurate the Mahasamadhi Centenary celebrations of Sree Narayana Guru at the Sivagiri Mutt in Varkala and attend the valedictory function of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations of St Thomas College in Pala, Kottayam district.

President Murmu will conclude her Kerala visit on October 24 by attending the centenary celebrations of St Teresa's College in Ernakulam. Murmu arrived in Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday evening for a four-day official visit to Kerala.

She was welcomed at the international airport in the state capital by Kerala Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, other public representatives, and senior officials.