Devotees Face Darshan Woes a Day Ahead of Vaikunta Ekadasi in Tirumala
Tirupati: Amid intense preparations for the Vaikunta Ekadasi festival at Lord Venkateswara temple in Tirumala, thousands of devotees reportedly faced difficulties accessing darshan queues on Friday, a day preceding the festival.
According to the data released by the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), only 40,638 devotees had darshan on Friday - significantly lower than typical weekend numbers at the abode of Tirumala Lord. Consequently, hundi collections also witnessed a decline, totalling '3.46 crore for the day.
Large crowds converged on Tirumala in hopes of a darshan, but the TTD security personnel repeatedly indicated that all compartments of the Vaikuntam queue complexes were completely occupied. However, TTD counts revealed that the number of devotees who had darshan was far below claims that queues were full.
Observers say the dip in devotee numbers resulted from TTD's exclusive focus on preparations for Vaikunta Ekadasi rather than facilitating darshan for devotees who arrived at the hill town a day ahead of the festival. The intense activity on festival arrangements led to confusion and an alleged lack of coordination in queue operations, preventing thousands of waiting devotees from accessing the temple on Friday.
