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...

min read

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.

Road safety council not met since April 2023

PTI

Jun 8, 2025

3 min read

By Kailash Korde

Mumbai: Despite Maharashtra witnessing 36,567 fatalities and 83,820 road accidents between January 2023 and April 2025, a top road safety council headed by the state transport minister has not met even once in two years, officials said on Sunday.

Such is the situation that current transport minister Pratap Sarnaik said he was not even aware of the existence of the State Road Safety Council.

The last meeting of the State Road Safety Council was held on April 4, 2023 under Eknath Shinde, current Deputy Chief Minister. He was CM at the time and held the transport portfolio, these officials said.

After the Maharashtra government constituted the council as per rule 215 of Central Motor Vehicles Rules in May 2015, biannual meetings, which are mandatory, were held regularly till 2019, following which which only four meetings took place till 2023, they pointed out.

From 2015, there should have been 20 meetings of the State Road Safety Council as per rules but only 12 have taken place, a senior official said on condition of anonymity.

Council’s job

As per officials, the council mainly reviews accident data, monitors the implementation of safety measures, and issues policy directives, adding that it is a crucial platform for eradication of black spots, assess enforcement gaps, and coordinate between various departments.

Its complete inaction reflects administrative apathy, a retired RTO official said.

"I am unaware of the existence of the State Road Safety Council. It is unfortunate my department did not even inform me about such an important body. I will convene a meeting of this council in June itself," Sarnaik, when contacted, told PTI.

Maharashtra Transport Commissioner Vivek Bhimanwar, who is also member-secretary of the council, said meetings could not be held primarily due to the election code of conduct.

Maharashtra witnessed Lok Sabha polls in May-June 2024 and assembly polls some months later in November.

Bhimanwar, however, said several other meetings, including those of high-power committees, were held to discuss road safety issues and important decisions were taken.

The file for convening a meeting of the State Road Safety Council is in motion and it will happen soon, he asserted.

Activists and experts emphasized that meetings of statutory bodies like the State Road Safety Council must be conducted regularly.

"In order to achieve the target of reducing deaths and injuries by 50 per cent by 2030, we need to have a clear action plan with targets for each department and associated budgets, said Ranjit Gadgil, programme director of Pune-based NGO Parisar.

"Rajasthan has recently made such a plan. Maharashtra should also revise the 2018 action plan and develop a programme, which should be reviewed periodically by statutory committees such as the State Road Safety Council," Gadgil said.

Huge registration

Maharashtra has over 4 crore registered vehicles, and witnesses more than 35,000 accidents and 15,000 deaths annually, with the grim figures continuing to rise, raising serious questions on effectiveness of road safety measures, experts said.

The transport department has been with the Shiv Sena since Shinde became CM in June 2022. He held it in his government and Sarnaik became transport minister when the Devendra Fadnavis dispensation came to power in December last year.

RTO officials said it was the responsibility of the transport minister or transport commissioner to convene meetings of the council. On May 13, 2015, the Maharashtra government constituted the State Road Safety Council headed by the transport minister, along with district road safety committees.

The Maharashtra transport commissioner is member-secretary of the 22-member committee, which includes eight special invitees.

Other members include the Public Works Department (PWD) Minister, Minister of State for Transport, Minister of State for PWD.

The BJP’s Ganesha Gambit

Road safety council not met since April 2023

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