Mumbai, July 21 -- City Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief, and cultural affairs minister Ashish Shelar alleged that 'urban naxals', supported by the Congress and the Shiv Sena (UBT) were trying to plot a conspiracy against Hindu festivals like Ganeshotsav, Dahi Handi, and Nagpanchami. While being felicitated at Pen, a city known for supplying Ganesh idols to the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), Shelar urged his audience of various sculptors' associations and MLAs from Maharashtra, to celebrate Ganeshtosav this year with pomp and show. "The ban on PoP (plaster of paris) idols was a well orchestrated conspiracy in which the Congress and the MVA (Maha Vikas Aghadi) were complicit," said Shelar, addressing a crowd of various sculptures' associations from Hamrapur, Johe, and Kalve-villages in Pen, known for making Ganesh idols. "Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and I stood firmly with the idol makers and fought this battle together and we won," said Shelar, adding that their victory was crucial in safeguarding the sanctity of the traditional festivals. Shelar's comments come at a time when the Bombay high court had initially banned Plaster of Paris (POP) Ganesh idols, with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation asking sculptors to use organic clay instead. The decision left sculptors and politicians afraid that the blanket ban on PoP would impact the sculptor's ability to produce idols, and reduce the scale and grandeur of the festival. Shelar had then requested the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to report on the impact of PoP and the high court permitted artisans to make idols of PoP but banned the immersion of those idols. Shelar said that since 2003, when a petition was filed in court seeking a ban on Hindu last rites and other traditional rituals performed at natural water bodies, there had been a deliberate attempt to dampen Hindu festivals and traditional rituals by 'urban Naxal elements' backed by the Congress, the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar ) and the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) Shelar said, "While responding to this petition, the Congress and NCP (Nationalist Congress Party) coalition government dragged the issue of PoP Ganesh idols into it. Had the government opposed the petition back then, we wouldn't have had to fight such a long and intense battle."...