Priyanka Gandhi offers worship at Attukal temple

 Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi on Tuesday night offered prayers at the famous Attukal Devi Bhagavati temple here.

After addressing a series of public meetings in Alappuzha, Kollam, and Thiruvananthapuram districts, she visited the shrine, along with Veena S Nair, Vatiyoorkavu candidate of the UDF, and spent some time at the shrine.

A large number of people were at the temple during Priyanka's visit.

She later left for a public meeting in a coastal hamlet at Valiyathura.

On Pongala day, women converge in the grounds and both sides of the highways, roads, and bylanes across the city, unmindful of the scorching midsummer heat.

They prepare 'pongala', a mix of rice, jaggery, and scraped coconut in fresh earthen or metal pots in makeshift brick stoves to please the Goddess.

However, this time the temple authorities decided to scale down the festival rituals by confining the pongala ritual to temple premises and the devotees were asked to offer the ritual at their homes to avoid crowding.

This was the first time in history festival was held as a mere ritual.