At the banks of Surat's Pardi-Kanade and Sachin ghats on Sunday, 15 November 2026, Union Jal Shakti Minister C. R. Paatil stood among thousands of devotees as the Gujarat Uttar Bharatiya Seva Sangh Chhath Samiti marked one of the most demanding festivals in the Hindu calendar — Chhath Puja, a four-day vow of fasting, sun worship, and gratitude to nature.

Paatil shared his experience on X, writing that he was 'fortunate to attend and meet all the vratis (fasting devotees) and worshippers.' He called Chhath 'a great festival of faith, discipline, and gratitude towards nature,' adding that 'the dedication of the vratis is exemplary.' He closed with a prayer that Bhagwan Suryanarayan and Chhathi Maiya bless every home with 'happiness, health, and prosperity.'

Surat's North Indian community and the Chhath Samiti

Surat is Gujarat's industrial powerhouse — and also one of India's most striking examples of internal migration reshaping a city's culture. Tens of thousands of workers from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Jharkhand have settled here over decades, drawn by the textile and diamond-polishing industries. The Gujarat Uttar Bharatiya Seva Sangh Chhath Samiti is the community organisation that channels this migrant presence into annual public celebration, coordinating the elaborate rituals at the city's water bodies each year.

Paatil noted that 'the contribution of North Indian society to Surat's cultural unity has always been commendable' — a pointed acknowledgment that the city's social and economic fabric is inseparable from its migrant workforce.

BJP's pattern of outreach at migrant festivals

The minister's attendance fits a well-established pattern: senior BJP leaders in Gujarat have made a point of participating in festivals that are native to northern and eastern India but celebrated with full vigour by migrant communities across the state. Chhath Puja, with its public, riverside rituals and mass participation, is particularly visible — and politically resonant across community lines.

Paatil himself, as a former Gujarat BJP state president and a minister with a mass-contact style, has built his profile partly on this kind of ground-level presence. Turning up at a ghat in Surat on a November evening, meeting fasting devotees face to face, is exactly the register he works in.

Chhath reaches its emotional peak with the Usha Arghya — the dawn offering to the rising sun — a moment that draws enormous crowds and carries deep spiritual weight for communities far from their home states. That a Union minister chose to be present underlines how central these migrant constituencies have become to the political and social conversation in Gujarat's cities.