The New Year will witness the biggest political and spiritual gathering of humanity to assemble in Uttar Pradesh, in the town of Prayagraj for the Kumbh Mela. According to sources, the Indian government concluded that Kumbh Mela will garner almost 100-150 million tourists with one million comprising solely of foreigners.

The millions of people will include travelers, aesthetes, and devotees including ash smeared ascetics. These ascetics or Sadhus will be seen bathing naked in the freezing cold waters of the Yamuna, the Ganges and the third river of Saraswati.

The typical devotee Hindus harbor a belief that bathing in the holy waters of these rivers will help in cleansing the body and absolving the sins of life. Apparently, the Kumbh also allows devotes to find the path to nirvana.

The festival will commence from the 15th of January and will continue for a period of 8 weeks. Further, the Indian government claimed that as a means of preparing for the festival of Kumbh they are erecting temporary bridges, creating 100,000 mass toilets and 600 pantries along with innumerable sleeping tents. The Kumbh Mela this year is deemed to be the biggest.

The festival is organized every 3 years in a few Indian cities across the three mentioned rivers. The biggest one is held at Prayagraj, and moreover with Uttar Pradesh mainly under the influence of the (BJP) Bharatiya Janata Party this year will see them putting in lots of promotional efforts.

The reason being, Bharatiya Janata Party will be having its elections due in May and hence, if they manage to impress Uttar Pradesh by hosting the biggest Kumbh then their chance of winning the election doubles.