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By:

Rajendra Pandharpure

15 April 2025 at 7:55:54 pm

The BJP’s Ganesha Gambit

Pune’s Ganeshotsav has become an enormous civic and political stage, and the ruling party has proved adept at occupying it. Pune: The city’s Ganeshotsav is entering its final phase, but the festival has already demonstrated something beyond its extraordinary crowds and familiar spectacle: the extent to which it has become a political stage. This year, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has left a particularly visible imprint on the festivities, using an event that reaches deep into the city’s...

The BJP’s Ganesha Gambit

Pune’s Ganeshotsav has become an enormous civic and political stage, and the ruling party has proved adept at occupying it. Pune: The city’s Ganeshotsav is entering its final phase, but the festival has already demonstrated something beyond its extraordinary crowds and familiar spectacle: the extent to which it has become a political stage. This year, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has left a particularly visible imprint on the festivities, using an event that reaches deep into the city’s neighbourhoods as an opportunity for public outreach. The political appropriation of the festival has not, however, been without a counter-current. Demands were raised for curbs on noise pollution, loudspeakers and the volume of dhol-tasha performances. The argument was not against Ganeshotsav itself, but for moderation - notably, a complete ban on DJ music and limits on the number of dhol and tasha instruments used by performing troupes. Familiar Troubles The festival’s reality has been rather different. Major roads have been occupied by mandaps. Processions celebrating the arrival of Lord Ganesha have unfolded amid punishing noise. DJ music, while subject to restrictions, has continued. Traffic congestion has become a familiar feature of the festival, with the movement of political leaders adding another layer to the city’s already strained roads. The Peth areas have remained crowded deep into the night. The Shrimant Dagdusheth Halwai Ganpati temple has drawn enormous crowds for darshan from the opening day. From the old city to housing societies and neighbourhood mandals, Ganeshotsav touches virtually every part of Pune. For a political party seeking a direct connection with citizens, few occasions offer such a ready-made network of people, institutions and local influencers. The BJP enters this festival with an unusually formidable organisational base. It has two MPs, seven MLAs and more than 100 corporators in Pune. Murlidhar Mohol, one of the city’s MPs, is a Union Minister of State. Chandrakant Patil is a Cabinet minister in the Maharashtra government, while Madhuri Misal is a Minister of State. The party’s presence also extends into the festival’s organisational architecture. Its influence is visible across numerous mandals, large and small. BJP MLA Hemant Rasane is General Secretary of the Shrimant Dagdusheth Halwai Sarvajanik Ganpati Trust. Kunal Tilak, a member of Lokmanya Tilak’s family, is a BJP corporator. The political and cultural histories of Pune therefore intersect in ways that are difficult to ignore. The BJP’s senior leadership has also made the most of the occasion. National President Nitin Nabin visited Pune to seek Lord Ganesha’s blessings, while Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis visited the city before and during the festival. Such visits are about more than religious observance. In a festival watched by millions and embedded in the city’s social life, political visibility comes almost automatically. There is also talk in Pune that the BJP provided substantial financial support to Dhol-Lezim troupes and their organisers, with claims that some major mandals received financial backing as well. These claims would require independent verification, but the perception itself points to the depth of the political contest around Ganeshotsav. BJP workers, according to local observers, have also sought to make their presence more conspicuous than that of festivities organised by housing societies. Useful Expedient The festival arrives at a politically useful moment for the BJP. The party has faced disquiet on several fronts. Young people have been agitated over the paper-leak controversy. Broader public dissatisfaction has been voiced over inflation and unemployment, while government policies relating to ethanol and charges associated with UPI transactions have also generated criticism. While a political party can defend a policy in a press conference and advertise its achievements, during Ganeshotsav, its workers can be physically present in neighbourhoods, among processions, mandals, cultural groups and devotees. Politics thus becomes less about argument and more about visibility. That is the BJP’s advantage in Pune. Ganeshotsav, after all, is not simply a sequence of religious rituals. It is an elaborate civic network involving local organisers, volunteers, cultural groups, businesses, residents and political representatives. Whoever has influence over that network acquires a powerful channel of communication with the city. The BJP appears to understand this particularly well. Its strength in Pune’s electoral politics has been reinforced by a presence that extends beyond elections and into the institutions and social spaces that organise public life. The irony is that the very scale of the festival that makes it politically attractive also magnifies the civic costs. The political value of Ganeshotsav and the civic burden it creates are therefore two sides of the same phenomenon. For Pune, the larger question is not whether politics has entered Ganeshotsav. It has done so for decades. The more consequential question is whether the festival’s extraordinary social capital will remain primarily a vehicle for political outreach or whether the same influence can be used to reconcile celebration with the ordinary civic needs of the city. For the moment, the BJP seems to have understood the first proposition better than most.

BJP's Gen-Z Power Play

Writer: Akhilesh Sinha
Akhilesh Sinha
Jan 20
3 min read

Forty-five-year-old Nitin Nabin formally takes charge as party’s youngest president

New Delhi: In a historic move since the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) formation, 45-year-old youth leader Nitin Nabin has been elected unopposed as the party's 12th national president. In handing the reins to Nabin, the BJP has reaffirmed its commitment to a developed India by 2047 through the vigor of young energy.


On Tuesday, in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, former president J.P. Nadda, Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, and Amit Shah, Nabin formally assumed charge at the BJP headquarters in New Delhi during the organization's foundation day celebrations. With the responsibilities now squarely on his young shoulders, Nabin faces an immediate litmus test in the upcoming assembly elections across five states.


Giant Leap

By appointing its youngest-ever national president, the BJP has taken a giant leap in Indian politics, channeling youth power toward building a developed India. This contrasts sharply with Congress leader and Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi's repeated calls to Gen Z to rally against the Modi government and BJP-efforts that yielded no success, whether in the Bihar assembly polls or the recent Lok Sabha elections. Despite Congress projecting the 55-year-old Gandhi as a youth icon, even posters in his Rae Bareli parliamentary constituency ahead of a rally depicted him in an Indian cricket team jersey alongside Akhilesh Yadav, branding Gandhi as "Team India captain" to target young voters.


The BJP's bold choice has rattled opposition parties while signaling a generational shift within its ranks, rallying young talent to shape India's future. However, Nabin must prove his mettle as an organizational leader. Assembly elections loom in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Kerala, and Puducherry-states where, barring Assam, the BJP confronts stiff challenges. Nabin's biggest test lies in securing victories for the BJP in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu, where regional parties dominate and the BJP struggles against entrenched dominance.


At the event, Prime Minister Modi accused infiltrators of plundering the nation, asserting that India will never accept them. The BJP has spotlighted demographic changes driven by infiltrators in West Bengal and Assam as key issues. Modi also hailed the BJP-NDA's wins in recent municipal elections in Maharashtra and Kerala. Underscoring the party's culture, he remarked: "People think Modi became chief minister at such a young age and has been head of government for the past 25 years. But above all, I am a karyakarta (worker). I accept that Nitin ji is my "Boss" now. I've submitted my report card, and he will evaluate my work."


Modi emphasized that the BJP is more than a party, it's a Sanskar (value system), a family where "membership" transcends into deep "relationships." He described it as a tradition driven not by positions but by processes: "Here, assuming office is a system, but responsibilities last a lifetime. Presidents change, but ideals don't. Leadership evolves, but direction remains steadfast."

 

In his address, Nabin urged youth to enter politics, echoing PM Modi's call on August 15, 2024, for young people to join public life. "Distance from politics isn't the solution-active participation is," he said. "But politics isn't a shortcut or a 100-meter sprint; it's a long marathon testing stamina, not speed. We must strengthen our roots and bat steadily on the political pitch." Defining politics as sadhana (devotion) rather than power, he added: "In our party, politics is not about wielding power but practice; not indulgence but sacrifice; not luxury but penance; not a position but accountability."

 

Nitin Nabin and PM Modi's speeches signal the BJP's intent to harness youth power alongside the organization to build a developed India, mounting a direct challenge to Rahul Gandhi's Gen Z appeals.

 

• Outpacing Rahul's Gen-Z Calls, BJP Bets Big on Youth Marathon for Viksit Bharat

• I accept that Nitin ji is my "Boss" now. I've submitted my report card, and he will evaluate my work.: PM Modi

• Nabin urged youth to enter politics, echoing PM Modi's call on August 15, 2024, for young people to join public life. "Distance from politics isn't the solution-active participation is needed," he said.

 


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