Dehradun, May 18: Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Uttarakhand on Saturday and offered prayers at the Kedarnath shrine. The Prime Minister, who is on a two-day visit to the hill state, will offer prayers at the Badrinath shrine on Sunday and would return to New Delhi on the same day later. After finishing his election campaigning on Friday ahead of Sunday's final phase of the seven-phased Lok Sabha Elections 2019, Modi arrived at the Jollygrant airport early on Saturday. Kedarnath Temple Opens up For Pilgrims After Six-Month Long Winter Break. 

In the wake of the Prime Minister's visit to the hill state, stringent security arrangements have been made for the prime minister's visit, DGP (law and order) Ashok Kumar said. Earlier this week, Uttarakhand BJP President Ajay Bhatt had said that The Prime Minister might visit Kedarnath on May 18 and offer prayers at Badrinath the following day on May 19.

PM Modi offers prayers at Kedarnath temple; See Pics

After becoming the Prime Minister, Modi has visited Kedarnath several times in the last five years. In November 2018, he had visited the Kedarnath shrine during Diwali while in 2017, he paid visits to the temple twice, once in May and again in October.

Nearly after six months' wait due to winter break, doors of the Kedarnath temple opened up for pilgrims on May 9.  The holy shrine, located in the scenic Garhwal Himalayan range of Uttarakhand's Rudraprayag district, sees thousands of devotees each year.  The state government has beefed up security and administrative measures in view of the pilgrim influx.

Polling for the seventh and last phase of Lok Sabha polls will be held on May 19. On Friday, the campaigning ended for the seventh phase which will see 59 seats going to the polls on May 19. Polling will be held for remaining eight constituencies of Bihar, three of Jharkhand, eight of Madhya Pradesh, 13 of Uttar Pradesh, nine of West Bengal and all the four of Himachal Pradesh, 13 of Punjab and the lone seat of Chandigarh.

According to a report by IANS, over 10.1 crore voters will decide the fate of 918 candidates including Prime Minister Narendra Modi. They will cast their ballot at over 1.12 lakh polling stations.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 18, 2019 10:06 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).