Gujarat Congress in Ambaji is collecting donations from a BJP MLA’s constituency, after the temple trust had to cater for meals for state's top BJP leaders worth ₹1,750 each, and teas and snacks worth ₹720 each.

The Shaktipeeth Mahotsav that was held in Ambaji, cost the Temple Trust a whopping ₹11,33,924, where who’s who of the state’s polity were served a feast.

The Opposition’s demand is that these expenses, that should have been borne by the Banaskantha Collector or the state for hosting the leaders at the ‘Mahotsav’ and not the trust. Acting on it, the party has now begun collecting donations from the general public.

The same public, the Congress believes, donates to the temple trust in faith, and that money was used for the ‘Mahotsav’.

Apart from this, an unusual catering order at the temple was also issued by the deputy election commissioner on the Election Commission’s letterhead. It is also unclear how the Election Commission could bill the trust.

All of this should ring alarm bells over the trust utilising money donated by the devotees for the betterment of the temple, not the elites.

In the same Ambaji temple, the ‘bhog’ for the devotees at the temple has been discontinued since the Covid-19 pandemic, and those services are yet to be resumed.

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Congress accuses Ambaji Temple management of ‘misconduct’ and ‘favouritism’