Red carpet for MoS

N C Bipindra / TNN / Jan 31, 2006, 02:13 IST

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Thousands of party workers, relatives and supporters went into a spontaneous roar of 'Pawan Bansal zindabad'.

CHANDIGARH: If the tumultuous reception given to the new Union minister of state for finance and local MP Pawan Kumar Bansal on Monday by the residents and party workers is anything to go by, the city seems to have spread a red carpet to its VVIP resident.
After assuming office on Monday morning at Delhi in the presence of Union finance minister P Chidambaram, Bansal arrived by road at the city's outskirts around 5 pm and got engulfed by the huge crowd that waited for long hours to receive him.
Thousands of party workers, relatives and supporters went into a spontaneous roar of 'Pawan Bansal zindabad' as the minister alighted from the car accompanied by wife Madhu and son Manish.
Soon a deluge of garlands landed on his shoulders, with former senior deputy mayor of the municipal corporation Pardeep Chhabra doing the honours first.

The teaming crowd mobbed Bansal and the policemen, posted for security, had no clue how to control the frenzy.
For almost a quarter of an hour, chaos ruled the roost at the Airport Chowk on the Chandigarh-Ambala Highway and traffic snarl was the order of the moment on the busy road that connects the city with the home of the powerful, Delhi.
A cavalcade soon followed Bansal into the city and he was once again welcomed by another few thousands supporters led by MC's deputy mayor HS Lucky, who is also the UT Youth Congress president.

From there, Bansal was conducted into the city and he reached his home at Sector 28 around 6 pm. The minister's family - younger son Amit, brother and sister with their families, uncles, aunts, nephews and nieces and party workers - welcomed him with 'aarti and tilak'.
Once in his home, Bansal's family brought out the dhols and distributed sweets and pakoras to the visitors. His nieces and nephews were the first to greet him with bouquets and they also took his blessings.
Bansal quickly went up the stairs to the first floor and waved at the milling crowd to slogans hailing his elevation and a place in the Union government. City mayor Surinder Singh arrived with a bouquet and greeted Bansal along with a large number of Congress councillors.
The minister would be in the city on Tuesday morning and would leave to meet his friends and supporters in Punjab.

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