Mangaluru (PTI): The Mangaluru 'dasara' celebrations of Kudroli Gokarnanatha temple here concluded in the early hours of Thursday with the immersion of the idols of Navadurgas and Goddess Sharada which were installed and worshipped at the temple auditorium for the last nine days.

Tens of thousands of devotees witnessed the magnificent and colourful Shobha yatra which began from the temple premises on Wednesday under the guidance of senior Billawa leader and the rallying force behind the temple renovation B Janardhan Poojary.

The procession featured tastefully decorated vehicles in which the idols of Goddess Sharada, Navadurgas and Lord Ganesha were placed along with many other tableaux including that of Sri Narayana Guru, who consecrated the temple.

The procession passed through Mannagudda, Ladyhill circle, Lalbagh, Ballalbagh, PVS Circle, K S Rao Road, Hampankatta, Ganapathi High School Road and Car Street before returning to the temple.

Teams of Chende and folk artistes and lambani dancers lent added attraction to the Shobha yatra. Bhajans teams and Huli Vesha teams also participated in the Yatre.

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Chennai (PTI): Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin has strongly criticised the Centre over the women's reservation and accused it of trying to use it as a "weapon" to tackle the opposition before taking up the delimitation exercise based on population.

"The Union government is not concerned about implementing reservations for women. If their concerns were genuine, they could have done it right away. Rather than doing that, the BJP-led Centre is thinking of using it as a weapon to tackle opposition and take up the delimitation exercise based on population," he told PTI in an interview.

"Hence, the women's reservation must be implemented immediately without showing delimitation as a reason," the DMK president added.

Expressing apprehensions on the proposed delimitation exercise, the CM said it was the DMK that raised the first voice asserting the rights of the state after realising that Tamil Nadu would be affected by the proposed exercise. He also attacked his rival and AIADMK chief Edappadi K Palaniswami over the delimitation issue.

Recalling efforts made by the DMK to raise the issue of population-based delimitation, he said an all-party meeting and a meeting of CMs under the auspices of the Joint Action Committee seeking fair delimitation were convened. It sought to freeze delimitation for 25 years and stick to it based on the 1971 Census population.

"We urged the union government that states which successfully implemented population control programmes must not be punished," he added. 

The party came up with "Tamil Nadu poradum, Tamil Nadu vellum" (Tamil Nadu will struggle, Tamil Nadu will win) and this is DMK's stand, he said.

"However, Palaniswami, who is seeking votes for the entry of the BJP through the backdoor, has till date been mute over delimitation, and this is a betrayal of the people of Tamil Nadu."