BEATING the Ayodhya consecration by five days, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik will roll out his own temple gambit on Wednesday. The heritage corridor or Parikrama Prakalpa around the Puri Jagannath Temple is a project that the BJD government launched five years ago, and promoted with much fanfare — and as elections come around, this may be the biggest ace up its sleeve against its principal opposition in state politics, the BJP.

The opening ceremony is also set to match the Ayodhya temple in ambition, with the BJD government billing the Rs 800 crore spent on a 75-metre free passage built around the outer walls (the Meghanada Pacheri) of the temple “the biggest infrastructure push involving the 12th-century shrine in 700 years”.

This ensures a clear and unobstructed view of the 800-year-old shrine, says the government, matching the stated aim of the Modi government’s other showpiece temple project: the Kashi Vishwanath corridor in Varanasi.

If religious rituals leading up to the consecration began at Ayodhya on Tuesday, they have been on in Puri since January 12. Religious fervour has been helped along by a three-day ‘Maha Yajna’ that began on Monday at all the four entrances of the temple. If the CM is scheduled to inaugurate the project, Puri’s erstwhile royal Dibyasingha Deb will conduct the “Poornahuti (culmination of Yajna)” moments after Patnaik inaugurates the Parikrama project.

The guests include religious heads of around 1,000 temples across the country. The famous Pashupatinath Temple in Nepal has also received an invite.

The parallels don’t end here. Like the BJP’s appeal at Ayodhya, the CM has urged people to join Wednesday’s celebrations by lighting diyas, reciting bhajans and kirtans and blowing conches. And, the celebrations won’t end come Wednesday. The Patnaik government has sanctioned Rs 150 crore for promotional events in every panchayat — as part of which officials collected a handful of rice and a betel nut from every household — and prepared a plan to sponsor the visit of around 10,000 people every day for a month from every panchayat of the state to witness the project. The Odisha government has also announced a public holiday on Wednesday.

“There is no secret that the BJP always plays the Hindutva card everywhere. Had we not initiated the Parikrama Prakalpa, the BJP would have flooded Odisha with the Ayodhya narrative ahead of the 2024 polls. They will not be able to do that now,” said a senior BJD leader.

Lord Jagannath is the most revered deity for people in Odisha, where over 90% people are Hindus who feel emotionally connected to the shrine. The sentiment of‘Odia Asmita (Odia pride)’ is associated with the Puri temple, all of which makes the temple a perfect pick, said the leader.

In the run-up to the inauguration of the corridor, the entire state administration has been concentrated on Puri overseeing the preparations. On Monday, the CM appealed to the people to “dedicate themselves to the devotion of Mahaprabhu Jagannath”, calling January 17 a day of celebration for all Odias. “It’s our good fortune that we will witness the opening of Parikrama Prakalpa. The project aims at facilitating the devotees to undertake the parikrama of the Jagannath Temple in a smooth and secure way,” said Patnaik in a video message.

“All preparations are complete. Some of the religious heads of temples from outside the state have started arriving. We are trying to give them the best possible hospitality. A nodal officer has been attached to each of the guests,” Puri Collector Samarth Verma said.

Along with the Parikrama Prakalpa, the CM will inaugurate other projects like Shree Setu, a trumpet bridge connecting Puri bypass to the Grand Road, Shree Marga (an unobstructed path to the temple from the Jagannath Ballabh Pilgrim Centre), and other projects.

With the temple administration expecting a footfall of over 5 lakh devotees over the coming days after the parikrama is inaugurated, massive security arrangements are in place, with DGP (in-charge) Arun Kumar Sarangi saying that Puri has been put under a security blanket.

Congress leader Bijay Patnaik accused the Odisha government of ignorance of the culture around Lord Jagannath worship, saying this is so because the government is being run by “outsiders”, a dig at the CM’s close aide, V K Pandian. He also accused the Odisha government of spending public money on a grand ceremony “to inaugurate four toilets and a road”.

The icing on the cake? The BJP is unlikely to attend Wednesday’s event, with its state unit president Manmohan Samal alleging that the Parikrama Prakalpa inauguration is being carried out by the state government as if “it is a BJD event”.