Narendra Modi lands in Kedarnath to offer prayers as part of 2-day visit to Uttarakhand hills; security tightened across valley

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be offering prayers at the Kedarnath shrine in Uttarakhand on Saturday.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives in Kedarnath, he will offer prayers at Kedarnath temple shortly. #Uttarakhand pic.twitter.com/sJJwfUoMPd

— ANI (@ANI) May 18, 2019

Modi’s visit to the holy shrine comes a day before 59 parliamentary constituencies, including Varanasi, will go to polls in the seventh and final phase of the Lok Sabha elections . The results of 2019 Lok Sabha polls will also be announced next week. [caption id=“attachment_6655951” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Security personnel at Kedarnath Temple before Narendra Modi’s visit. ANI[/caption] Keeping the prime minister’s arrival in mind, security has been tightened near the shrine, which is located at 11,755 feet above the sea level. Tripti Bhatt, commandant of the State Disaster Relief Force (SDRF) has directed all officials in the Kedarnath valley to maintain vigil in view of the Prime Minister’s visit to the temple. The Himalayan shrine, dedicated to Shiva, has been visited multiple times by Modi during his ongoing term in the office. In November last year, Prime Minister Modi had visited the Kedarnath shrine during Diwali. In 2017, he paid visits to the temple twice, once in May after its gate had opened following a six-month winter break and again in October, before the temple again closed for winters. This year, the portals of the Kedarnath temple in the Garhwal Himalayan range of Uttarakhand’s Rudraprayag district were thrown open to pilgrims on 9 May after a six-month-long winter break.