It’s just the third day of the 10-day Ganesh festival which started on September 17 and already the Lalbaugcha Raja has had more than 5 lakh visitors. Lalbaugcha Raja which is in its 83rd year has even made its organisers spellbound. 

“We expected huge crowd to come but to cross 5 lakh mark within 3 days is something I have not seen,” remarks  Ashok Pawar, president of the Lalbaugcha Raja Sarvajanik Ganeshotsav Mandal. 

Remarks Markand Jain, who was lucky to take the first darshan of the lord on the first day, “For the past three years, I visited the Lalbaugcha Raja, but did not get to touch his feet. I only got mukh darshan. I decided I will start the queue this year and hence, stood in the line from 12.30pm on Wednesday.” Agrees Jayshree Naik a housewife from Parel who took darshan on the third day, “I was standing in the queue for 12 hours before I got the chance to touch the lord’s feet. I did this for the first time in my life and I feel blessed.” 

The Lalbaugcha Raja sees millions of devotees every year, but such devotion has left even the organisers surprised. Remarks Kishore Desai member of the organising committee, “If this is the kind of rush we are saying now, then after 10 days I think we can easily cross 1 crore mark. We are happy and thrilled that people believe in Lalbaucha Raja, also we have a large team of more than 5000 members so can definitely handle such a crowd.”