26.11.08

Food war in Maharashtra

Are they serious?
The food war is hottingup in Maharashtra with the Congress presenting its answer to the Shiv Sena’s Shiv Vada Pav – Kande Pohe. Noting the success of the Shiv Vada Pav sammelan at Shivaji Park , the Congress, forced to take the Marathi issue seriously, immediately declared a mega fair at Azad Maidan to showcase the quintessentially Maharashtrian snack ‘Kande Pohe’. The party is then planning to open Kande Pohe stalls around the city.“We are planning to hold this fair in a big way in December. Every district has its own way of preparing this snack. The best stalls in the fair will be considered for Kande Pohe stalls around Mumbai,” said Rajhans Singh, leader of the opposition in the BMC. “There will be around 125-150 stalls from all over the state at the fair. We will have different types of Kande Pohe from Konkan, Kolhapur, Solapur, Vidarbha and other districts,” Singh said. He added, “If Shiv Sena is claiming that Vada Pav is a Maharashtrian delicacy, it is a big lie. The basic ingredients of vada are potato and besan, which come from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, while onions and pohe, the ingredients in Kande Pohe, are available right here in Maharashtra.” The proposal prepared by Singh has been approved by Mumbai Congress Chief Kripashankar Singh. Both the leaders have sought a meeting with Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh on this next week. It may be recalled that the Congress government had ordered the shutdown of all Zunka Bhakar stalls in Mumbai, which had been allotted by the then Sena-BJP government.

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