Yogi Adityanath swearing-in: Head priest of Gorakhpur temple performs special ‘Puja' ahead of gala event

Yogi Adityanath will take oath as the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh for the second time at Lucknow's Ekana Stadium today. The ceremony will commence at 4pm, and around 85,000 people will attend it.

Ahead of Yogi Adityanath's oath-taking ceremony as the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh for the second time on Friday, the head priest of Gorakhpur temple performed a special ‘Puja’. Yogi Kamal Nath also performed a special ‘aarti’ for the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) CM-designate for the northern state, according to pictures shared by news agency ANI.

Yogi Adityanath will be sworn in as the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh in Lucknow on Friday, March 25, 2022. (HT Archive)

Notably, Adityanath - who contested Uttar Pradesh assembly elections for the first time this year, won from BJP's stronghold Gorakhpur by a margin of more than 1 lakh votes.

Catch live updates of Yogi Adityanath's swearing-in ceremony

The chief minister-elect had represented the Gorakhpur Lok Sabha seat until 2017 when he first became the head of the state on a BJP ticket after the saffron camp registered a runaway triumph, dethroning Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party (SP).

Following his swearing-in, Adityanath will be the first chief minister of Uttar Pradesh to have returned to power after completing a full first term.

The gala event that is to held at Lucknow's Ekana Stadium will see several noted personalities not only from the political fraternity but also from the film world present. The ceremony will commence at 4pm, and around 85,000 people will attend it.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union home minister Amit Shah, chief ministers of several BJP-ruled states such as Goa's CM-designate Pramod Sawant - whose swearing-in ceremony will take place on March 28, Uttarakhand's Pushkar Singh Dhami, Tripura's Biplab Deb, Manipur's Biren Singh and Karnataka's Basavaraj Bommai are among the key attendees at the event.

Director of ‘The Kashmir Files’ movie Vivek Agnihotri and actor Anupam Kher are also going to present at Ekana Stadium for Adityanath's oath-taking ceremony.

Opposition leaders, including Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi, party leader Rahul Gandhi, Akhilesh, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati and SP founder-patron Mulayam Singh Yadav, among others, have also been invited to watch Adityanath be sworn-in as the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh.