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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.

Overworked, Overstretched

Correspondent
Oct 10, 2024
2 min read

Updated: Oct 22, 2024

Maharashtra’s Chief Minister, Eknath Shinde, has long been known for his relentless work ethic, but this dedication has come at a cost. Overexertion has taken its toll on Shinde’s health, forcing him to cancel a crucial cabinet meeting before the model code of conduct ahead of the Assembly election comes into effect and prompting doctors to advise complete rest. This is not the first time the CM has been unwell due to his exhausting schedule, but the recent episode underscores a growing concern: Shinde may be pushing himself beyond his limits.


Well before he staged his coup to become CM, Shinde has cultivated ‘a man of action’ persona: during the 2018 Kerala floods, he reached the water-logged state with boxes of medicines and first-aid tools. Since taking office in June 2022, Shinde has been a man in perpetual motion. Immediately after taking oath as Chief Minister, his schedule had been a whirlwind of tours, meetings, and late-night trips to Delhi. This punishing schedule has continued ever since. His supporters point to his hands-on approach, whether visiting flood-hit regions or overseeing relief efforts in landslide-stricken areas, as evidence of a leader who leads from the front. In one moving instance, in July 2023, Shinde did not merely review the situation in Irshalwadi, a village buried by a landslide; he climbed the steep ascent in torrential rain to reach the settlement, directing rescue operations to show solidarity with rescue workers.


 This ‘field-man’ persona has earned him praise, but has also raised concerns about sustainability. Shinde’s determination to be everywhere has left him sleep-deprived, with his public engagements often stretching into the early hours. His insistence on connecting with every constituent, addressing even minor grievances, has endeared him to the public but strained his physical well-being. Even senior figures in Maharashtra’s government have noticed the toll his work habits are taking.


Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar recently admonished his own party workers for extracting too much work from Shinde. Despite this, Shinde continues to take on more than most politicians would dare. He frequently visits disaster-hit areas in person, often stepping into roles that could easily be delegated to local officials. His recent visit to the site of a fire accident in Chembur, for instance, could have been handled by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation commissioner, but Shinde chose to lead from the front, underscoring his desire to remain connected with the grassroots. The CM’s gruelling pace has now raised concerns about his ability to continue at such a breakneck speed. While his loyalists argue that this commitment is a testament to his rise from the ranks, it is evident that such a schedule is unsustainable. For all his devotion to the role, Maharashtra’s Chief Minister may need to learn that even the most dedicated leaders require rest.

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