Puri (Orissa): Commotion prevailed at the Sri Jagannath temple on Tuesday when sevayats (temple caretakers) demanded that Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and two other ministers stand in queue along with the general public for diety darshan (glimpse of the God) on New Year's day.
As public entry into the shrine was streamlined on Monday with devotees asked to move in a single queue for darshan of the deities, a section of sevayats insisted that the Chief Minister and other ministers should also enter into the temple in a queue along with the general public, official sources said.
While Patnaik was finally allowed a darshan, his cabinet colleagues and a ruling BJD MP had to finally return disappointed.
Patnaik was accompanied by Energy Minister Suryanarayan Patra, Sports Minister Debasis Naik, BJD MP Prasanna Patsani and Speaker of the state Assembly Maheswar Mohanty who is the local MLA.
The temple administration tried to persuade the sevayats to allow the VIPs to enter the shrine but they stuck to their demand resulting in commotion with damage caused to the metal detector, the sources said.
The Chief Minister was subsequently allowed to go in but the other two ministers and MP were not so lucky.
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