Nagpur bathed in the spirit of devotion as people celebrated Shri Ram Janmotsav with religious fervour on Sunday. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis performed puja at Shri Poddareshwar Ram Mandir along with many other social and political luminaries. A grand procession was organised by Shri Poddareshwar Ram Mandir Samiti, to mark the ‘Ram Navami’ celebrations. The shobhayatra commenced in the presence of Devendra Fadnavis, Chief Minister; Banwarilal Purohit, former Governor of Punjab; Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister; Chandrashekhar Bawankule, Guardian Minister of Nagpur district; Pravin Datke, Dr Ashish Deshmukh, Krishna Khopde, Dr Nitin Raut, MLAs; Krupal Tumane, MLC; Satyanarayan Nuwal, Chairman of Solar Group; Dr Ravinder Singal, Commissioner of Police; Ajay Sancheti, former MP; Dr Anees Ahmed, former minister; Dipen Agrawal, President, CAMIT; Dayashankar Tiwari, former Mayor; Ramesh Bang, former minister; Jayprakash Gupta; Mahendra Poddar, Trustee of Shri Poddareshwar Ram Mandir; and other dignitaries.

 

Fadnavis extended greetings to the devotees on the occasion of Ram Navami. Following the decades-old tradittion, Muslim brethren welcomed the procession when it reached Mominpura. Fadnavis and Gadkari together led the devotees who pulled the traditional chariot. Over 50 tableaus based on incidents in the life of Lord Ram and other mythological events were part of the grand procession. Some of the tableaux were spreading social messages. Telling tableaus like the Bahubali Events tableau, some went with a more descriptive style like The Paper Traders’ Association, which showed Valmiki composing the Ramayana. Rokde Jeweller’s tableau of the Baidyanath Jyotirling, Shri Baidyanath Bhavan’s tableau of the Vishnu Avatar, Go Gas Confidence Group’s tableau depicting the whole Prayagraj Mahakumbh, and Shri Ramdham’s tableau depicting the fierce Narsingh Avatar were some of the beautiful tableaus that were the highlights of the procession.