Myriad colours of India in full display as Holi celebrated with fervour

Holi, the festival of colours, was celebrated on Monday with full gusto across the country by people from all walks of life.The festival was extra special this year as it was the first in Ayodhya after the consecration of the Ram temple and also as it fell in the middle of an election year.In the national capital, the Delhi Traffic Police deployed special teams across major road intersections to check drunk driving and red-light jumping.

Holi, the festival of colours, was celebrated on Monday with full gusto across the country by people from all walks of life.

The festival was extra special this year as it was the first in Ayodhya after the consecration of the Ram temple and also as it fell in the middle of an election year.

In the national capital, the Delhi Traffic Police deployed special teams across major road intersections to check drunk driving and red-light jumping. Six people were injured after they came in contact with a high-tension wire while celebrating Holi on the roof of a house in east Delhi's Ganesh Nagar area.

Among the injured, three people, including a woman, are reported to be in serious condition. The celebrations were grand at the Ram temple in Ayodhya. People from different places reached the temple early in the morning and offered colour and gulal to the deity.

The entire Ram Janmabhoomi premises was immersed in the joy of the festival of colours. ''Ram Lalla is celebrating his first Holi after his consecration in the temple. His charming idol was decorated with flowers, gulal has been applied on the forehead. On this occasion, the idol of Ramlalla wore a pink dress,'' Ram Janmabhoomi temple chief priest Acharya Satyendra Das told PTI.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah celebrated Holi with Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel and BJP functionaries in Ahmedabad. Referring to the consecration of the Ram temple on January 22, he said Holi this year was special for all ''Ram bhakts'' because the lord was celebrating the festival of colours after a gap of 500 years.

''There is an old folk song which says Holi Khele Raghuveera Avadh Mein… Now after 500 years, Raghuveer is playing Holi at Avadh. This is a matter of great joy for everyone. My greetings to all the citizens on the occasion of Holi,'' he told a gathering.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and Gorakshpeethadhishwar Yogi Adityanath performed Rudrabhishek at Gorakhnath temple and prayed to Lord Shiva for the welfare of the people and the world.

The ancient city of Varanasi threw itself with full abandon in the Holi celebrations with the revellers dancing to music in streets amid bursts of abir and gulal.

Foreign tourists joined the locals in the excitement as the ghats of the city teemed with people who indulged in all sorts of festivities.

Holi was celebrated in Haryana, Punjab and their joint capital Chandigarh with great fervour on Monday as children threw balloons filled with colourful water at each other while elders visited friends and relatives and distributed sweets.

Industrialist and former Congress MP Naveen Jindal, who joined the BJP on Sunday, met Chief Minister Saini and former chief minister Khattar here on Monday and greeted them on the occasion of Holi.

Mathura in Uttar Pradesh was drenched in hues of the rainbow on Monday as people celebrated Holi and smeared 'gulal' on each other.

Brij Bhoomi, especially Vrindavan and Govardhan, also witnessed an explosion of colours.

Pilgrims visiting the ISKCON temple also joined the celebrations in Vrindavan.

In parts of Mathura, women hit men with sticks as part of Lathmar Holi.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde celebrated Holi in Thane after paying tribute to his mentor late Anand Dighe at Anand Ashram. He refused to answer questions on seat sharing talks in the ruling alliance for the Lok Sabha polls.

Holi was celebrated with great enthusiasm across Rajasthan, with everyone joining in the revelry and coming out in the streets to paint each other with colours.

Foreign guests who are staying in Rajasthan also enjoyed the 'Rangotsav' and several of them were seen playing with colours in the walled city of Jaipur.

Chief Minister Bhajnalal Sharma played Holi with the people on the Officers' Training School campus.

In West Bengal, colours of Holi blended with the hues of different political parties as candidates tried to make the most of the occasion to connect with the people in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections.

Smeared with 'gulaal' of different colours, several leaders of the Trinamool Congress (TMC), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), CPI(M) and other parties celebrated the festival of colours, known as 'Dol Yatra' in West Bengal, with common people on the streets.

Tapas Roy, who recently joined the BJP from TMC, and was on Sunday named the saffron party's candidate from Kolkata North constituency, tried to make the most of the day by engaging in people-to-people connect while celebrating the festival of colours.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee greeted all through social media on the occasion of Dol Purnima and Holi.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy and Governor S Abdul Nazeer extended Holi greetings to the people of the state.

Holi was celebrated with fervour and gaiety across Telangana on Monday as revellers applied colours on each other and exchanged greetings.

They painted each others' faces with gulal and threw colour water, while some danced to music.

Telangana Governor C P Radhakrishnan, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, state BJP president and Union Minister G Kishan Reddy, former CM K Chandrasekhar Rao wished people on the occasion of Holi. Meanwhile, a man was injured in Dombivali in Thane district after being assaulted amid Holi celebrations, a police official said on Monday.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)