Chariots of the Chief Ministers: Modi, Mamata and their rath yatras

On two opposite ends of the country, two very different Chief Ministers flagged off the annual rath yatra in their states. In Gujarat, Narendra Modi, resplendent in a turban, folded his hands atop an elaborately decorated rath. He was shielded from the sun by an equally elaborate parasol. In West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee, dressed in her regulation white cotton sari, had to make do with a far more prosaic umbrella. Her famed common touch was very much in evidence as she mingled with the crowd beside the chariot, rather than atop it.

On two opposite ends of the country, two very different Chief Ministers flagged off the annual rath yatra in their states. In Gujarat, Narendra Modi, resplendent in a turban, folded his hands atop an elaborately decorated rath. He was shielded from the sun by an equally elaborate parasol.

In West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee, dressed in her regulation white cotton sari, had to make do with a far more prosaic umbrella. Her famed common touch was very much in evidence as she mingled with the crowd beside the chariot, rather than atop it.

The rath yatra, held every year by the Jagannath temple in Puri, is replicated all over the country. The rath or chariot holds images of Lord Jagannath, his brother Balabhadra and sister Subhadra. It leads a procession attended by lakhs of devotees. The nine day long festival ends when the chariot heads back to the temple, it's starting point.

Mr Modi performed a symbolic path cleaning after which the rath yatra began in Gujarat. He also pulled the chariot out of the 400 year old Jagannath temple in Ahmedabad's Jamalpur area.
The rath yatra in Ahmedabad will pass through communally sensitive areas of the city, and heavy security has been organized along it's 14 km long route. For Mr Modi, the yatra is something of a political juggernaut. He is at the midst of a political storm caused by Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar's statement that his party would only accept a secular Prime Ministerial candidate from the NDA, the political alliance led by the BJP to which Mr Modi belongs.
In the east, Mamata Banerjee mingled with the throng of devotees, unlike Mr Modi. Like him, she is also currently at the centre of much political wrangling, this time over the issue of who the Congress should nominate as a Presidential candidate. Ms Banerjee proposed former President A P J Kalam for a second term, a nomination that was rejected both by the Congress and Mr Kalam himself.

Kolkata's rath yatra is organized by the ISKCON temple. Ms Banerjee also performed the Aarti in addition to flagging off the procession.