Maan Gaye Aapko, Shri Chandrashekhar Bawankule!!
Arguably the best wedding a politician could have in Maharashtra for his son. Being a son of a journalist whose career spans over 40 years, I have attended almost all of such big weddings. I would rate this one in the top 3 of all times. Reason, I shall tell you… When the times are such that one Hindu party is fighting with another, one secular party has aligned with right wingers, when one uncle is against his own nephew, when one son to fulfil is fathers last wish makes Maharashtra unstable, here one wedding united all of them, even if it was for mere 20 minutes. All of them came, they stayed and they hugged each other. Mr Chandrashekhar Bawankule you have created MAGIC for the last 4 days in our state. Somehow, somewhere, the Universe is thanking you for this…Mark my words, more than a wedding, it was necessary that someone gets everyone under one roof just to ‘peace-off’, laugh and have that conversation which everyone was avoiding, and because of you it all happened! Many came together, many flew together, many ate together and many stayed together. I could see a bond happening within the most powerful politicians of our state who are otherwise at loggerheads with each other. Thank you Mr. Bawankule for this!!
Yes, the occasion was Bawankule’s son and BJP Youth Wing (BJYM’s) Sankets wedding to Anushka. It was a wedding where the entire politically important people of Maharashtra came together. Here Sharad Pawar sat for 45 minutes, as did industrialist Gautam Adani…Sanket and Anushka were lucky to be blessed right from Yoga Guru Ramdev Baba to Governor Koshiyari, from Nitin Gadkari to Devendra Fadnavis to Raj Thackeray, from Sanjay Raut to Prithviraj Chavan to Ajit Pawar to Balasaheb Thorat and many many more!! Everyone came leaving aside their ideologies and parties behind. Few Central Ministers too came and blessed the couple. Don’t even ask about bureaucrats. I feel let alone the entire IAS and IPS, even just to experience the magnanimity of the event I feel even the entire bureaucracy (non-ias too) also came and marked their presence, not for anything, but purely for the love and respect Bawankule enjoys. Ours and Bawankule’s family share a special bond. So my father went to the reception hosted at Pune and I went for the Nagpur one. And I kid you not, even if the event was big, the people who came made it larger than life.
www.vikrantjoshi.com
Hats off to the entire planning team for arranging such a big wedding and doing it in style and not one stone was left unturned to make it look anything less, let me tell you that! I was told that the planning went on for almost 2 months. Right from who will be standing on the stage to who will escort the VIPs, all was just perfect! Also those who attended too, were not ordinary people. As I said when the state is undergoing political turmoil, it was no mean task to invite so many from different parties and best part was all of them turned up. Bawankule himself went to all of their homes with invites. Imagine 90% of them who came were from Mumbai, live in different parts of the city and we all know how traffic can dampen your spirits, but Mr. Bawankule, you just made everything fall in place for the dream wedding for Sanket and Anushka.
Now, coming to the political angle, I am telling you, forget Munde or Bhujbal, with the relations, what we father-son witnessed in the last 4 days, Bawankule is the new age OBC leader BJP or even Maharashtra was looking for and he is here to stay. People like Pawar who just go to the stage and vanish off after blessing the couple, stayed for nearly an hour. Devendra Fadnavis who does not attend any of the closest persons wedding twice, was there for both the functions at Pune and Nagpur. People who missed Pune reception, attended the Nagpur reception at 39 degrees (evening temperature) fighting the crowd of almost 25000. The likes of Rane, Shelar, Mungatiwar, and many other MP’s and MLA’s were at Nagpur. You know why all of this happened and why everyone came so enthusiastically?
The credit goes to Bawankule. When the party denied him a ticket in 2019, for a day he was very sad even after being a performer in Devendra Fadnavis’s government! I had spoken to him for 45 minutes that week over the phone, I recollect. It was my father who had advised (I don’t know if he liked it) that if he continues to work for the party one day the party will realise their mistake and boom it happened. He became MLC within 2 years and thank god, another Khadse was avoided in making. Bawankule is the one who is equally loved by Gadkari and Fadnavis, by the way. He enjoys excellent relations with the corporates too. Hence a person like Gautam Adani too came and stayed for a long time. Bawankule’s infectious smile and the will to help whosoever came when he was the Energy Minister during 2014-2019, has won him these brownie points with everyone; unlike now where Nagpur’s guardian Minister is the Energy Minister and electricity goes off when CM comes for Cabinet meetings at Mantralaya. Imagine two people from the same town but yet so different!! Anyways, Bawankule enjoys RSS support too. PM Modi and HM Amit Shah sent their wishes. I am writing all this just to tell you about BAwanukle who came from a very humble background, today to reach these heights as a Vidharbian and a Nagpur, we are very proud of him.
God has blessed him with a lovely family too. A man can go ahead this much in his life only if his home supports him. Home means wife and children (who are on the right track). Bawankule ji, sending you all the love and positive vibes on this occasion. Congratulations Sanket and Anushka once again.
Vikrant Hemant Joshi
PS: Log on to twitter or Instagram of Mr. Bawankule…I have mentioned only a few, have a look for yourselves who all were the attendees!!
