Hooda's aide offers prayers at Baglamukhi temple in Himachal

New Delhi: Two days ahead of the counting of votes in Haryana, a close aide of former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Sunday arranged special prayers at a holy temple shrine in Himachal Pradesh.

Hooda's aide landed in a private helicopter at Gaggal (Kangra) airport on Sunday and headed to pay obeisance and arrange special prayers at the Mata Baglamukhi temple at Dhera, about 30 km from Kangra. Dehra is the assembly constituency of Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu's wife Kamlesh Thakur.

It is said that the aide had offered prayers at the temple at around 4.30 pm to seek Mata's blessings for Hooda as he leads the race of frontrunners for the Haryana chief minister's post.

The other contenders for the chief minister's post are Kumari Selja, Randeep Singh Surjewala and Deepender Hooda.

Baglamukhi is the female form of a personification of the mahavidyas (great wisdom/science), a group of ten Tantrik deities in Hinduism.

Bagalamukhi, commonly known as Pitambari in North India, smashes the devotee's misconceptions and delusions (or the devotee's enemies) with her cudgel.

Former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, ex-President Pranab Mukherjee and former chief ministers of Himachal Pradesh have all paid obeisance at the temple.