The Hanuman temple stands inside the decked-up pandal, specially erected on Friday morning in the backyard of Arjun Munda’s official address in Ranchi. (Prashant Mitra)

Chief minister Arjun Munda on Friday fulfilled his longstanding wish of having his personal Hanuman temple as it was ceremoniously inaugurated in the backyard of his official residence on Kanke Road.

Right from 11am, political leaders, government officials, personal guests and thousands of well-wishers started thronging Munda’s home. The residence of Jharkhand’s First Couple reverberated with chanting mantras as a team of priests conducted a special puja at the modest and tastefully done-up granite temple after the pran pratistha (infusion of ‘life’) ceremony for the four-feet marble idol of Hanuman that bore the stamp of Jaipur’s exquisite craftsmanship.

Officials are cagey about who funded the temple — Munda himself or the public exchequer — but it was a happy day for the chief minister.

Smiling despite being bound to the wheelchair, a dhoti-clad Munda welcomed guests — Speaker C.P. Singh, food and civil supplies minister Mathura Prasad Mahto, parliamentarian P.N. Singh, chief secretary S.K. Choudhury, additional chief secretary A.K. Sarkar, finance secretary Sukhdev Singh and many other known faces were spotted — with folded hands. Wife Meera, who was also on the ill-fated Agusta chopper on May 9, also joined him under a colourful canopy set up for the occasion.

“The miraculous escape from the helicopter crash is a kind of new life for the chief minister. The special prayer offered today after Hanumanji’s pran pratistha was a thanksgiving for this new life,” said an aide.

Guests wished Munda a speedy and complete recovery.

People kept trooping in even till late afternoon, though security personnel wheeled Munda away into his private quarters at 2.06pm.

“It was a good spiritual-cum-social gathering. I was among the first visitors and liked it very much. We wished the chief minister a speedy recovery,” said Ashok Nagpal, an elderly BJP supporter.

Inside the residence, the well-planned ceremony bore the evidence of Munda’s eye for detail. The canopy was large, chairs and tables adequate for guests, the simple vegetarian lunch of puris, a couple of curries, rice, dal, dahi vadas and bundi, tasty.

But outside, the scene was more than a tad chaotic. With not enough parking space inside the chief minister’s residence, cars of some guests were directed to Police Line grounds. The number of vehicles swelled rapidly, giving traffic police regulating them a tough time.

It is well known that Munda is a Hanuman-bhakt (devotee) and work on the temple had started much before his May 9 helicopter crash land. But the near-fatal experience, which he called “punarjanam”, may have intensified his spiritual impulses, as sources said that the chief minister was keen on getting the temple ready soon.

Also, the BJP’s political fortunes, which are on a tailspin in the state, could do with some divine bailout — it lost to arch-rival JVM in Jamshedpur and coalition partner Ajsu in Hatia. Hanuman, supposed to be the main trouble-shooter for lord Ram in his war against demon king Ravana, is the apt deity to invoke at this point.

The temple will also be a peaceful place for the chief minister to sit, meditate and keep the tensions of running a coalition — egos are known to be notoriously fragile — at bay. Facing north, a beautiful garden makes the temple’s ambience more attractive.