All for Amma: AIADMK man holds 34-day yagna

It's been a week since elections were held in Tamil Nadu but politicians are yet to slow down. Before the polls, they were busy touring their constituencies, racing from town to town to promise freebies to voters. Now, the men in white are racing from temple to temple offering pujas and promises to the gods.

M Kamaraj, an AIADMK functionary from Chennai, is conducting a 34-day yagna for party chief Jayalalithaa's victory. "The Ganapathi homam will remove the hurdles in Amma's path, while the Sudharsana yagna will prevent any problems from cropping up between the alliance partners," he said. To round it all off and ensure a majority for the AIADMK, he's also having a Maha Sandi yagna. Kamaraj runs a mass meditation centre in Manapakkam, where cadres have been meditating for Jayalalithaa's health and wealth for the past two years. "Our meditation will give spiritual power to Jayalalithaa to become a chief minister," he said.

Former minister and AIADMK candidate for Tirunelveli constituency Nainar Nagendran visited the Nellaippar temple in Tirunelveli and the Bagavathi Amman temple in Kanyakumari on April 14, the day after the election. "I prayed for the AIADMK's success. I also did special pujas in both temples in the name of the party chief," he said. Former AIADMK minister O Panneerselvam and other party men offered prayers at the Narasinga Perumal temple in Madurai on April 15.

Alangulam independent candidate and former AIADMK minister Venkatachalam's son V Rajapandian said, "My father constructed an Ayyanar temple in Alangulam. The same Ayyanar appeared in my dream and ordered me to contest this election. I am now at the Lord Murugan's temple in Tiruchendur. They will ensure my success in this election."

On Tamil New Year's Day, April 14, many anxious candidates queued up outside the Annamalaiyar temple in Tiruvannamalai to pray to Lord Shiva. "It is an auspicious day. So several candidates visited the temple and requested special pujas," one of the priests said.

Despite their rationalist outlook, a number of DMK candidates too visited temples across the state as well as Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh. "A senior DMK minister visited the Tirupati temple a couple of days ago. The families of two DMK ministers also came here after casting their votes," said a security person at the temple.

Some candidates even requested special homams to destroy rivals. AIADMK Thanjavur candidate M Rengasamy and his cadres organised one such special puja in a temple in Chennai. "We conducted a puja for Agni, the god of fire, on April 14 at Prathiyangira Devi temple near Sholinganallur to destroy Amma's political rivals," he said.

A priest at the temple said the homam was only performed on new moon and full moon days. "Dried red chillies are used for the destruction of negative forces. This year, several politicians and their families booked homams on April 14. Several DMK members also did homams," he said