An acharya’s appeal for an immediate end to the Kumbh following a phone call from Prime Minister Narendra Modi was dismissed by his akhara head on Sunday, raising the possibility of thousands of sadhus staying on for weeks even beyond the scheduled April 30 closure.

“The Prime Minister said something to an acharya and he began talking.... But the Kumbh will continue,” Mahant Hari Giri, international patron of the Juna Akhara, told The Telegraph over the phone from Haridwar on Sunday.

“There remain at least four occasions for holy baths. They include Shankaracharya Jayanti on May 18 and Buddha Purnima on May 26. At least 400 senior sadhus of the Juna Akhara will take the holy dip on May 26 before vacating the area.”

Several senior monks from other akharas (monasteries) echoed Hari Giri, saying they would stay on till May 26.

Modi had on Saturday tweeted that he had spoken over the phone to Swami Avdheshanand Giri, acharya mahamandaleshwar of the Juna Akhara, and proposed that the remaining Kumbh rituals be kept symbolic to boost the fight against the Covid surge.

Swami Avdheshanand subsequently said the Kumbh should be called off.

But Hath Yogi, a senior member of the Digambar Ani Akhara, backed Hari Giri’s stand that tradition cannot be violated although he castigated the government for allowing the Kumbh in the pandemic. “The government should have postponed the Kumbh keeping the pandemic in mind, but organised it with political motives,” he told reporters.

“The Mahakumbh should have started from April 2022, when Brihaspati (Jupiter) will be in Kumbh Rashi.”