Chikkamagaluru : The Sangh Parivar took out a shobhayatre in the city on Friday as a prelude to the Datta Jayanthi celebrations to be held on Saturday.

Wearing orange panche, shawl and Dattamala, the devotees took part in the procession. The embellished idol of Lord Dattathreya was taken out in a procession on all major roads. Datta devotees sang ˜bhajans’ holding ˜Bhagavadhwaja” throughout the procession. Nasik Band and folklore teams were another attraction at the procession.

The yathre which started from Kamadhenu Ganapathy temple passed KEB Circle, Basavanahalli Road, Hanumanthappa Circle, M G Road before culminating at Azad Park.

The residents of the area lit camphor on the road to welcome the procession. They offered flowers, fruits and broke coconuts as a mark of their devotion.

MLAs C T Ravi, V Sunil Kumar, VHP leader Gopal, Bajrang Dal state convener Sooryanarayana, former MLA M P Kumaraswamy, BJP State Vice President Rekha Huliyappa Gowda and others participated.

The police had beefed up security to ensure that no untoward incidents occur during the procession.

The movement of vehicles on M G Road was prohibited from 3 pm to 7 pm. Addressing the religious meet, VHP leader Gopal said the VHP will not tolerate an insult to the Hindu society. Hindus have the power to build a temple at Ayodhya.