Lalbaugcha Raja Ganeshotsav celebrations cancelled this year

MUMBAI: There will be no Ganesh idol at Mumbai’s famous Lalbaugcha Raja for the first time in 86 years after the state government instituted strict norms that organizers said would make it impossible to install the towering idols that drew 15 million visitors last year.

Instead, the Lalbaugcha Raja committee said it will hold an 11-day blood and plasma donation drive, starting August 22.

To promote social distancing as the city battles mounting Covid infections, the Maharashtra government capped the height for all Ganesha idols at 4 ft this year — because the largest idols tend to have the largest processions and visitor counts.

But the organizing committee decided they would skip a year rather than alter their Ganesha.

The decision wasn’t an easy one, admitted Santosh Kambli, chief sculptor of the idol. “Our family has been making the idol for three generations. To not make one this year is upsetting. But we cannot reduce the height of the idol we have worshipped for 86 years.”

Devotees said they were upset. “The decision is understandable, but that doesn’t mean I’ll miss him any less,” said Ajinkya Mhatre, 68, a retired banker who has sought darshan every year for 47 years.

Kambli’s father Ratnakar, 79, who usually adds the finishing touches , says the whole family is missing Bappa.

CM UDDHAV PRAYS FOR ‘MAGIC’

Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray performed special prayers at the Lord Vithhal temple in Pandharpur on Wednesday morning on the occasion of Ashadhi Ekadashi.

“I (Uddhav Thackeray) prayed to the Lord that now I want to see magic. Show me that magic because as humans our hands are clasped. We don’t have medicine or anything else. How to live with a mask on our faces? Start destroying corona from today and give the entire world a happy and healthy life,” tweeted the chief minister’s office (CMO).

“I also prayed to bring happiness for the agrarian community and fulfil all desires and wishes of people of the state.”