Millions immersed their Ganesha idols across Maharashtra on Anant Chaturdashi, Sunday, 27 September 2026, and the processions — from Mumbai's beachfront to Pune's riverside ghats — passed without major incident. Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis took to X late Sunday evening to publicly salute the state's police force for making it happen.

Posting in Marathi, Fadnavis wrote that Ganeshotsav was celebrated 'with great enthusiasm and joy' across all cities and villages of the state, and that immersion processions in Mumbai, Pune and elsewhere concluded 'in a disciplined and peaceful manner.' He credited the police directly: 'Our police brothers and sisters worked tirelessly to fulfil their duty. Their contribution in ensuring that the celebrations of lakhs of Ganesh devotees concluded joyfully and in a safe environment is truly commendable.'

Ten days, millions of devotees, one state police force

Ganeshotsav is Maharashtra's largest recurring public festival — a ten-day event ending each year on Anant Chaturdashi with mass processions converging on rivers, lakes and the Arabian Sea for visarjan (idol immersion). The logistical scale is enormous: Mumbai alone sees some of the most complex crowd-management operations in the country, with processions snaking through densely packed neighbourhoods before reaching the seafront.

Maharashtra Police deploys officers across all districts for the duration of the festival, coordinating traffic, crowd flow, emergency response and, in recent years, environmental compliance during immersions. A peaceful close to Anant Chaturdashi is considered a direct measure of the state's public-order machinery.

Why the Chief Minister's salute carries weight

Successive Maharashtra governments have treated the smooth conduct of Ganeshotsav as a governance benchmark — a high-visibility test that plays out in real time in front of the country. A public acknowledgement from the Chief Minister immediately after Anant Chaturdashi has become a near-ritual gesture, but it also signals to the force that leadership is watching, and approving.

Fadnavis closed with a pointed line: 'कर्तव्याला सर्वोच्च प्राधान्य देत उत्सवाच्या आनंदाला सुरक्षिततेची साथ देणाऱ्या आपल्या पोलीस दलाला मनःपूर्वक सलाम!' — 'A heartfelt salute to our police force, which placed duty above all and paired the joy of the festival with security.' The language is deliberate: duty first, celebration second.

For a force that draws little public applause during ordinary days, the Chief Minister's visible, named acknowledgement — posted to a platform with national reach — matters as both morale and message.