It is not even a year since Nitin became BJP’s national president and look at the response to his invitation.
In recent memory of Nagpur, there has never been a wedding like this. Sure, grand marriages have been staged in the past, but nothing so far has combined power and glamour as has the wedding of Nikhil Gadkari with Rutuja Pathak, adding up to a grand statement for the Bharatiya Janata Party president Nitin Gadkari, the groom’s father.
“It is not even a year since he became the [BJP’s] national president from nowhere and look at the response to his invitation,” said Rohit Bajaj, an industrialist who has seen Gadkari’s political journey as a fellow Nagpurian.
Nagpur’s Dr Babasheb Ambedkar International Airport saw overcrowding in its airspace with over 35 private and chartered jets arriving within a span of few hours, ferrying chief ministers, political bosses, film stars, and business honchos. Hotels of all denominations had their rooms booked, and government guest houses too had put up the no-vacancy sign.
The reception at the Vidarbha Cricket Association’s Jamtha stadium was a pretty neat affair. BJP’s senior statesman Lal Krishna Advani led the entire BJP top brass in blessing the couple while Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan, Union minister of state for civil aviation Praful Patel, Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray, and a host of others made it an affair cutting across party lines.
But the real show stealer was the massive public reception at the Reshim Bagh grounds of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh, where a few lakh people turned up.
Political observers see this as a massive exercise by Gadkari to reach out. He has so far contested only from the limited graduates’ constituency that helped him get into the Maharashtra legislative council.
“If he has to make his mark as a national leader, then he was to win a Lok Sabha election,” says the average Nagpurian, and overwhelming feeling here is that now, it will be tough for anyone to beat Gadkari.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}