NCP supremo, Shinde, Shah to attend Gadkari's 61st birthday bash

Nagpur: The 61st birthday celebration of senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and Union minister Nitin Gadkari is set to be an all-party affair.

BJP national president Amit Shah tops the list of dignitaries attending the event on May 27 at the sprawling Kasturchand Park ground located in the centre of the city.

Former Union minister and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar, who enjoys close relations with Mr Gadkari, former Union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde of the Congress and Assam governor Banwarilal Purohit are among those who will attend the bash.

Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis who heads the reception committee along with his Madhya Pradesh counterpart Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Chhattisgarh chief minister Dr Raman Singh, will be there to join the celebrations. State industries minister Subhash Desai will represent Shiv Sena as party chief Uddhav Thackeray will not be available to attend the function. Spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar along with Union minister of state for social justice, Ramdas Athwale, will also share the dais, said Girish Gandhi, joint convener of the reception committee.

Other prominent invitees likely to attend are Union ministers Prakash Javdekar and and Piyush Goyal and Congress leader Narayan Rane.

The district administration recently cleared the Kasturchand Park ground to hold the function, and it was endorsed by the Nagpur high court bench endorsed early this week.

The reception committee has decided to present Gadkari a purse of 'one crore “as a token of love,” sources said. Mr Shah is likely to utilise the opportunity during his visit to the city to address the volunteers attending the ongoing annual third year training camp of the Rashtriya Swayayamsewak Sangh (RSS) at their Reshimbagh premises. When contacted, Atul Pingle, secretary of Vishwa Samwad Kendra, a media wing of the RSS, denied any knowledge or programme of Mr Shah so far.