Visits to seer helped Jagan Mohan Reddy
As soon as the trends showed that he was winning the elections, Mr Reddy telephoned the seer, thanked him and took his blessings.
Vijayawada: YSRC chief Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, said to be hot-headed, had bowed befo-re Vizag-based Sarada Peetham seer Swami Swaroopa-nandendra Saras-wati.
It is believed that well-publicised visits to the seer’s ashrams in Vizag, Tirupati and Rishi-kesh helped Mr Reddy swing the votes of Hindus, especially the upper castes who had stayed away from him in 2014.
The seer had performed the Raja Syamala Yagam, that is generally conducted by kings before going to war, for Mr Reddy. He had performed the same yagam for Telangana state Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao before the 2018 Dec-ember Assembly polls.
As soon as the trends showed that he was winning the elections, Mr Reddy telephoned the seer, thanked him and took his blessings.
Sources said Mr Reddy follows the seer’s advice diligently. It is Swami Swaroopananden-dra who fixes auspicious murhurthams for everything that Mr Reddy does, from releasing the party candidates list to, now, taking oath as Chief Mini-ster.
Mr Reddy first visited the seer’s ash-ram in Vizag to attend the anniversary celebrations on January, 2015, surprising the orga-nisers by accepting their invitation. Mr Reddy had no other scheduled events in Vizag. On the advice of the seer, he first visited the Simhachalam temple and then to the Peetham.
He visited the ashram again in 2016 to take part in the anniversary celebrations, spent almost two hours there and wore the silk clothes offered by the seer. He participated in the purnahuthi of the yagams that were held there. Mr Reddy participated in a special homam on the banks of river Ganga in Rishikesh at the Sarada Peetham’s ashram. He spent a lot of time in doing the homam after taking a holy dip in the Ganga. “Like how Jayala-lithaa lost the battle after disturbing the Kanchi seer, in Andhra Pradesh too Chandrababu Naidu lost as he unnecessarily meddled with Hindu institutions. This is what you get if you disturb the Hindu fabric. Jagan has faith in God and I believe he will deliver good governance. My blessings to him,” the Swami told this newspaper.