Gandhinagar: Union home minister Amit Shah and his family members participated in the morning prayers at the Jagannath Temple, while chief minister Bhupendra Patel performed ‘pahind vidhi', a traditional ceremony of symbolic cleaning of roads with a golden broom, as the 148th rath yatra of Lord Jagannath was held in Ahmedabad on Friday.Accompanied by his family members and state ministers Jagdish Vishwakarma and Harsh Sanghavi, the Union minister attended the ‘mangala aarti' before dawn at the Jagannath Temple on Friday. He posted pictures of the morning prayers on his X handle later and wrote, "On the auspicious occasion of rath yatra, the opportunity to participate in the mangala arti at Shri Jagannath Temple located in Ahmedabad is a divine and supernatural experience.

May Lord Jagannathji continue to shower his blessings on everyone."Continuing the tradition, the CM performed the sacred ‘pahind vidhi' – a ritual of cleaning the chariot of Lord Jagannath with a golden broom and later flagging off the rath yatra by pulling the chariot out of the temple compound. Patel monitored the 148th rath yatra on the CM dashboard. Chief secretary Pankaj Joshi, M K Das, ACS to the CM and home department, DGP Vikas Sahay, and other officials were also present for real-time monitoring of the rath yatra procession

Later, the CM flagged off a rath yatra from of SGVP Gurukul on Drive-In Road on Friday, an official statement said. The CM took part in rituals and an ‘aarti' before flagging off the 18th rath yatra of Memnagar SGVP Gurukul.Also, both Amit Shah and Bhupendra Patel wished the people of Kutch on the occasion of the Kutchi New Year, which was celebrated on Friday.