BENGALURU:  For some people in the city, worship is work. From weddings to house warming ceremonies, festivals to special homa and havan, archakas or purohits, play an important role in these auspicious occasions. Now, they have come together for yet another auspicious reason — urging people to come out and vote on April 18. 

About 62 archakas, aged between 30 to 60 years, are visiting localities, reaching out to people, urging them to cast vote. With shanka (conch shell) and jaagate (gong) in their hands, these team of Archakas step out of their usual workplace — temples and mutts — appealing every individual on road and inside houses, to come and vote on April 18.  They have dedicated five hours to this job.Puranik Radhakrishna Bhat, who is leading the team, said, they normally go to the different houses to conduct homa, special pooja or during festivals.

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“Right now, we have stopped doing this and are urging people to vote. We are asking them not to treat election day as a holiday or for fun. It’s our responsibility to step out and vote,’’ he said. So far, they have visited Rajajinagar and Jayanagar. Now, they are planning to do the same in Malleswaram.Raghavendra Bhat (37) has come all the way from Siddapura taluk in Uttara Kannada  district to Bengaluru and joined the team. 

“Every election, Bengaluru voting per cent is much lesser than the state average. This is because people do not vote. When I met Puranik during one of the poojas, we were talking how people’s participation will change the voting pattern. That’s when we decided we should appeal to people and ask them to vote,’’ he said. 

Kritin, a mechanical engineer at a private firm, who hails from Mangaluru, has been living in the city for the last seven years. When he was in Mangaluru, he was never into Vedanta. “When I came to Bengaluru for work, I used to go to my relative’s house. That’s where I met these archakas. I was impressed and started learning from them. I used to go with them for pooja during weekends. I have joined them on this mission and accompany them during weekends and holidays and my parents are happy that I am helping in this noble mission,’’ said the 28-year-old.