Jalabhishek at Mahakaleshwar passes off peacefully

JHANSI: The Jalabhishek performed by Gorakhpur MP Yogi Adityanath's Hindu Yuva Vahini at 16th Century Mahakaleshwar Temple on the last Monday of holy month of Shravan passed off peacefully amidst heavy police deployment and strict vigil.
The administration was on its toes since early morning and had deployed four columns of PAC and a column of RAF along with additional police force requisitioned from the district.Besides, barricades were also put up in one-kilometre radius of the temple to restrict entry.
The procession, comprising around 5,000 Vahini activists and senior BJP leaders, including mayor Kiran Verma and district president Sanjeev Singhrishi, started off in the morning from exhibition ground near Circuit House, around five kilometres from the temple. The noted exclusions were MP Yogi Adityanath and local BJP MLA Ravi Sharma. Last year, Adityanath had announced his participation in the Jalabhishek but was arrested in Kanpur.
The procession was stopped at Jhokanbagh, around half-a-kilometre before the temple. From here, the administration allowed a batch of 15 at a time to go to the temple and perform jalabhishek. Each batch moved under the watchful eyes of the cops.
Mahakaleshwar Temple is a part of 600-year-old cluster of temples built by Gosain (monk warrior) rulers of Jhansi. The place around the temple cluster remained inhabited till around half-a-century back, when several Muslim families started residing in the area around the temple. With the passage of time the area around the temple developed into a densely populated locality inhabited majorly by Muslim families.
Hindu factions, including the BJP, have been demanding removal of encroachment around the temple. The jalabhishek during this time of the year and Shivratri is used as a mode to protest against the illegal inhabitants.