President Murmu visits Meenakshi Sundareswarar temple in first Tamil Nadu visit

President would visit Coimbatore later in the day to attend the Maha Shivrathri celebrations at Isha Yoga Centre

President Droupadi Murmu visited the renowned Sri Meenakshi Sundareswarar temple here on Saturday and offered prayers.

During her first visit to Tamil Nadu after being elected President, she was accorded full temple honours (Poornakumbham) upon her arrival at the ancient shrine at about noon and was conducted around the temple by senior officials of the temple administration. The President spent nearly an hour at the temple.

Earlier, Murmu was received by TN Governor R N Ravi, who was clad in the traditional Tamil attire of a dhoti and shirt, State IT Minister T Mano Thangaraj, upon her arrival at the airport here.

"President Droupadi Murmu started her visit to Tamil Nadu with the darshan of Meenakshi Amman in Madurai. She prayed before the Mother Goddess for the well-being of all," a tweet on the official account of the President of India said.

On the President' official Twitter account, the Rashtrapati Bhavan also shared a picture of a young girl greeting Murmu.

After a brief halt at the circuit house here, the President, on her maiden visit to Tamil Nadu, would visit Coimbatore later in the day to attend the Maha Shivrathri celebrations at Isha Yoga Centre.

Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments department principal secretary B Chandra Mohan, HR & CE Commissioner K V Muralidharan, temple thakkar (fit person) Karumuttu T Kannan, Madurai collector S Aneesh Sekhar, Inspector General of Police (South Zone) Asra Garg and Commissioner of Police K V Muralidharan were among those who accompanied the President during her visit to the temple.