Devotees thronged temples in large numbers across Telangana since the early hours of Monday and offered special prayers on the auspicious occasion of Vaikuntha Ekadasi.
Serpentine queues of devotees waiting to have darshans of the presiding deities were seen at many major Vishnu temples, including the Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy temple at Yadadri and the Sita Ramachandra Swamy temple at Bhadradri.
The temple managements had made elaborate arrangements for the devotees to have hassle-free darshans. The temples were all decorated and illuminated, and provisions made for Vaikuntha dwara darshans.
Finance Minister T Harish Rao presented a gold crown weighing 1.792 kilograms to the presiding deity of the Sri Venkateswara Swamy temple in Siddipet. The crown, worth over Rs 1 crore, was made with 1 kilo of gold bought by the temple management and the remaining contributed by donors including Harish Rao. The minister also had a darshan of Lord Venkateswara.
Endowments Minister Indrakaran Reddy, Energy Minister Jagadish Reddy, Government Whip Gongidi Sunitha and other elected representatives visited the Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy temple at Yadadri and had a darshan of the presiding deity through the Vaikuntha Dwaram.
At the Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy temple at Dharmapuri in Jagityal district, Minister for Social Welfare Koppula Eshwar along with family members had a darshan of the presiding deity, and later unveiled the temple's new year calendar.
Assembly Speaker Pocharam Srinivas Reddy along with family members visited the Sri Vijaya Lakshmi temple at Erragadda in Hyderabad and had a darshan of Lord Venkateswara Swamy.
Grand arrangements were also made at the Sri Ranganatha Swamy temple at Jiyaguda in Karwan Assembly constituency in Hyderabad. Minister for Animal Husbandry Talasani Srinivas Yadav offered silk cloths to the presiding deity and performed special pujas to mark the occasion.