Mega 60th birthday bash for Gadkari in Nagpur

Nagpur, May 27 (IANS) Braving the blistering 45-plus degrees C heat, this Maharashtra city enthusiastically celebrated the 60th birthday of Union Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari on Saturday.

The celebrations started with a massive garland offered to Gadkari, who sported a simple kurta-pyjama, with lots of selfies and pictures clicked.

This was followed by cutting a massive 60-kg cake arranged by Bharatiya Janata Party activists and his supporters this afternoon amidst a thunderous applause, loud cheers and blessings to the leader.

A former BJP national and state President, businessman-lawyer-politician Gadkari completed 60 years on Saturday and started the day with prayers and a private celebration with family and friends at home.

Later this afternoon, thousands of BJP activists from across Maharashtra queued up for the celebrations organised by the party for the leader who started as a grassroots worker 40 years ago to attain dizzying heights in the party and politics.

This evening, he will be presented a purse of Rs 1.01 crore which has been contributed by all BJP MPs and MLAs from the state and would be donated to 100 charitable organisations by him.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis earlier released a biographical book on the senior leader while a vocational training institute near Narkhed named after Gadkari was inaugurated on Saturday.

At the main celebratory function scheduled at the Kasturchand Park, several bigwigs, including BJP President Amit Shah, Nationalist Congress President Sharad Pawar, senior Congress leaders and former Chief Ministers Narayan Rane and Sushilkumar Shinde are likely to attend.

Other prominent personalities expected to join the birthday-bash include Assam Governor Banwarilal Purohit, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Kumar, several central leaders including Republican Party of India-A President and Union Minister Ramdas Athawale.

Spiritual leader and preacher Sri Sri Ravishankar is also scheduled to join the birthday celebrations.

Scores of other sideline events like cultural programmes for youth, health camps for police personnel, blood donation drives and a clean-up of the Sonegaon Lake in the city has been undertaken by party activists as a run-up to the main celebrations.

Besides the VVIPs, more than 50,000 people from Nagpur and rest of Maharashtra are expected to congregate at the huge function and a musical extravaganza by well-known playback singers Sudesh Bhonsle and Vaishali Samant later this evening.