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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.

Strong Outside, Gentle Within

Pranav Pawar
Jan 28
2 min read

Pawar was both trusted and deeply connected with the masses

Pune: It was almost heartbreaking for me to hear about the plane crash in Baramati. The sudden and shocking death of Ajitdada Pawar, along with his staff, has left me deeply shaken.


My mind went back to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. That was when I had the chance to work with him during Sunetra Pawar’s campaign against Supriya Sule in the Baramati constituency.


During those days, I was deeply touched by the personal warmth of Ajitdada. His fatherly affection toward all his family members, including Parth, Jay, and Sunetra Tai, as well as his personal staff at his Pune residence, Jijai Bungalow, left a lasting impression on me.


Ajitdada was always caring and practical in his approach to work. You would always feel a sense of positivity the moment you entered his “Jijai”. Even a few minutes of conversation with Ajitdada made you feel grounded and practical. I always met him early in the morning, between 6:30 am and 7:30 am, when he was fresh, calm, and attentive.


At Jijai, you were always offered poha and tea, a simple gesture that reflected his care and respect for his karykartas.


I never once heard Ajitdada express personal anguish, even during his political fight with his cousin sister Supriya during the Lok Sabha elections. He always insisted that rivalry should remain political and never become personal, which I believe is rare among today’s politicians. That is what made him a rare combination of a mass leader and a deeply trustworthy figure in Maharashtra politics.


Ajitdada was like a coconut—strong on the outside, yet gentle, warm, and caring within. Very often, his honesty did not bring him favourable political returns, but he never regretted it. He always stood firmly by his words and actions. I never saw him make gestures just for show, to pass the time, or merely to please people without expecting sincere work in return.


Whether at his residence in Pune or in Baramati, Ajitdada was always surrounded by hundreds of karykartas and people. This itself reflected his strong grassroots connection with the masses.


Even after his party’s recent setback in the Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad municipal elections, he openly admitted that Punekars had not voted for him. He said he would work harder, with an open mind, to win back their mandate.


Will Ajitdada’s next generation carry forward his political legacy, or will this mark the end of the Ajit Pawar family’s political journey? But one truth is already clear today. There will not be another “Dada” in Maharashtra politics who is both so trusted and so deeply connected with the masses. Jijai will always remember him as their own “Dada”.

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