With An Eye on 24% Voters, BJP & Cong Woo Chhat Devotees in Mumbai

With BMC elections just 3 months away, Congress and BJP are using Chhat to cultivate North Indian voters in Mumbai.

(Picture: Reuters. Altered by The Quint/Sheldon Healy)

Chhat puja is a big event in Mumbai this year. Organisations backed by Congress and BJP have made arrangement for pujas at 12 places in Mumbai including Borivli, Mulund, Chembur and Colaba. The biggest event is organised at Juhu beach.

Chhat is originally celebrated in Bihar and Eastern UP, wherein women worship the sun for the well-being of their children. Today, Mumbai is home to 30 lakh North Indians, many of whom have migrated from these regions. The total population of Mumbai as per 2011 census is 1.24 crore. So, around 24 percent of citizens of Mumbai are Hindi-speaking North Indians.

Although not all North Indians celebrate Chhat, a major part of the 24% of Mumbai’s population either participates in it or is culturally sensitive to it. With BMC elections three months away, both BJP and Congress are trying hard to woo devotees, who are flocking Mumbai beaches to perform the puja.

Mumbai Congress president Sanjay Nirupam who hails from Bihar, and Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis who is likely to be the face of BJP during elections, performed Chhat puja at Juhu beach. While Shiv Sena and MNS are fighting to get Marathi votes, the competition between two national parties is essentially for non-Marathi votes.