Visuals of Lalbaug Cha Raja, one of the most-visited Ganesh Pandals in Mumbai, are widely being circulated online. These include photos of daily darshan of Lalbaug Cha Raja, devotees visiting the pandal, footages of celebrities walking through the darshan lane. There are also drone shots or videos captured from top of buildings showing how the entire street in the area is lit up to mark Ganesh Utsav with an impressive festival spirit.

Of the many videos going viral online, there are few which record bouncers pushing general devotees touching the foot of Bappa in an act of trying to manage the crowd and stagnation.

Not one single video, but a couple of them show female bouncers pushing people soon after their Charan Sparsh is done. They aren’t allowed to stay there for minutes and pray to Bappa and are rather asked to leave the premises allowing others too to take the darshan. While this could be considered to be fair for making way for others by keeping the queue flowing, it sparked an outrage on social media after people compared it to how VIPs were treated at the pandal.

As seen in the video, one of the feet of Bappa was being touched by general public and the other was allegedly being worshipped by VIPs who weren’t pushed to leave the premises immediately. Even seconds after their darshan of Bappa and Charan Sparsh being done, those touching the other foot of Lalbaug Cha Raja, believed to be VIPs, were seen standing next to his foot and clicking pictures together. Videos showed how VIPs stood there for a while within which 5-6 devotees were already been pushed to leave from the other queue.

Netizens react

These visuals from the Ganpati Pandal raised questions on VIP culture and VIP darshan there. “Won’t be surprised if Lalbaugcha Raja Pandal is declared as VIP only in future,” said netizens while reacting to the videos going viral online from Lalbaug Cha Raja’s darshan. “Assign a separate day for VIP darshan only VIPs allowed and all the remaining days keep it open for all devotees irrespective of anything!! Hoping anyone listens,” people added while trying to understand that these important personalities may receive special darshan but others should not face mistreatment.

Netizens offered due respect to Lalbaug Cha Raja and his talked-about miracles, but they highlighted allegedly how the organisers failed to equally treat very devotee visiting the pandal. “Not sure if Lord Ganesha himself approves the behaviour of Lalbaug Cha raja mandal! In front of God you can’t treat ppl so differently,” they wrote.

Celebs at Lalbaug Cha Raja 2024

This year, several celebrities have visited the pandal already along with lakhs and lakhs of general public queueing up to seek a glimpse of Bappa. From politicians to cine stars, some of the popular personalities who recently took darshan of Lalabug Cha Raja are Amit Shah and his wife Sonal Shah, Uddhav Thackeray, Rashmi Thackeray, Raj Thackeray, Deepak Kesarkar, Shilpa Shetty, Raj Kundra, Vicky Kaushal, Ayushmann Khurrana, Shriya Pilgaonka, Bhuvan Bam, and more.