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Thousands converge at Yamuna ghats to celebrate Chhath Puja
New Delhi
New Delhi
Thousands of Delhi residents gathered at 1,100-odd ghats to celebrate Chhath Puja on Saturday evening.
Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal attended the puja at Bajrangi ghat in the Yamuna riverbed in north Delhi’s Burari neighbourhood. He said, “Delhi now has close to 1,200 Chhath ghats against only 73 that existed till last year. The coming years will see more number of concretised Chhath ghats.”
Chhath Puja is a major festival in Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh. Migrants from these states are popularly referred to as Purvanchalis in Delhi and political parties estimate that they form around 30% of Delhi’s voting population. The four-day Chhath festival began on Thursday and on the last two days, devotees perform rituals and offer evening and morning ‘arghyas’ (offerings) to the Sun god by taking a dip in a river or other water bodies.
Scores of political leaders belonging to the Aam Aadmi Party, Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress joined devotees on different ghats on Saturday evening. On Saturday, North East Delhi MP Manoj Tiwari, who heads the Delhi unit of the BJP and identified himself as a leader of the Purvanchalis, inspected several ghats on November 1 covering around a six-kilometre stretch in the Yamuna on a motor boat.
Traffic was thrown out of gear on Saturday evening in several parts of the city, including Kashmere Gate, ITO junction, Mayur Vihar, the Yamuna Pushta stretch, Sarai Kale Khan and parts of Ashram chowk, traffic officials said.
By late evening, Delhi Traffic Police, however, blocked a few stretches and diverted routes in vicinity of 43 major ghats, which include Sonia Vihar, ITO Bridge, Kudesiya Ghat, Ramghat, Shyamghat, Shiv Ghat, Lohia Pul, Shiv Ghat, Sarai Kale Khan, Hathi Ghat and Mahavir Enclave and Haiderpur Canal.
