A thinner-than-expected crowd of about a lakh of devotees turned out at the Bahuda Yatra this year.
This prompted Daitapati Nijog head Jagannath (Jaguni) Swainmahapatra to reiterate his stand for allowing devotees to climb the chariots and touch the deities.
He said that as devotees are disallowed to climb atop the chariots, it has disappointed them, for which their congregation on the day was poor.
Swainmahapatra also reiterated his assertion that the Daita servitors would move the High Court to seek a ruling from it in favour of devotees climbing the chariots and touching the deities.