Amit Shah, Sharad Pawar Offer Prayers at Lalbaughcha Raja Ganesh Pandal in Mumbai

Mumbai: Union Home Minister Amit Shah and NCP (SP) chief Shar Pawar separately visited famous Lalbaugcha Raja Ganesh pandal in Mumbai on Monday and offered prayers to deity amid ongoing Ganpati festival.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde , Deputy CM Devendra Fnavis and Bharatiya Janata Party's national general secretary Vinod Tawde accompanied Shah during his visit to Mumbai's most popular Ganesh pandal in Lalbaug area.

Shah later also visited Bandra West Ganesh pandal, associated with Mumbai BJP he Ashish Shelar.

Earlier in morning, Shah visited official residences of CM Shinde and Fnavis here and offered prayers before Ganesh idols installed at ir respective homes.

It is second day of Shah's visit to Mumbai. On Sunday night, he held a meeting with CM Shinde as well as Deputy CMs Fnavis and Ajit Pawar .

Shar Pawar visited Lalbaugcha Raja pandal along with his son-in-law Sanand Sule and granddaughter Revati.

In a post on X, former Union minister said, " glory of Mumbai's Ganesh festival can be seen in Girgaon. I wholeheartedly visited Lalbaughcha Raja pandal along with my family members. I prayed for strength to fight for causes of farmers and common people." BJP MLC Pravin Darekar, however, termed Pawar's visit to Lalbaughcha Raja pandal a "pretentious" act.

"Pawar visited temple after so many years and that too for political reasons. It is highly pretentious of him to visit pandal. Pawar h attended events where speakers insulted Hindu deities but never countered m," Darekar claimed.

Maharashtra assembly elections are due in next couple of months. 

(This story is not edited by Republic and is published from a syndicated feed)