BHUBANESWAR: The deities of Puri Jagannath temple, who are normally offered the day's first bhog (breakfast) at 8.30am, remained hungry till 5.30pm on Friday following a strike by servitors, who stalled all rituals in protest against a priest's forcible entry into the shrine to conduct rituals despite a ban on him for his alleged inter-caste marriage in 2017, reports Debabrata Mohapatra.Though public darshan remained unaffected, the temple administration failed to placate the servitors till evening.

The administration agreed to conduct the cleansing ritual, which was held around 2.10pm.

The rituals resumed around 2.20pm and the deities were offered breakfast at 5.30pm.

"We will take action against those who caused the disruption," the temple's chief administrator, Ranjan Das, said.Singhari, meanwhile, denied the charges against him, and said that he had performed rituals last year as well.