The verdict is out: Gujarat, which like Maharashtra was formed on May 1, 1960, has outdone its neighbour in celebrating the golden jubilee.The widespread and grand celebrations of the neighbouring state were no match for the two-hour long 'event’, a laser show off Marine Drive in Mumbai, organised by the Maharashtra Government, political observers said.Gujarat took the lead from the very conception, by making preparations for the last one year and they are going to celebrate for entire year, state BJP spokesperson Madhav Bhandari told PTI.The main difference is that while Maharashtra’s was an 'event', Gujarat’s would be an year-long affair, he said. 

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"They (Gujarat) have planned taluka-level garib melas for the next one year," he said. Gujarat government sent a minister to every state, to present its achievements in the last 50 years , something that Maharashtra also could have done, he said.They projected Gujarat as Gujarat, not as BJP-ruled Gujarat, Bhandari said, adding Maharashtra Government did not even bother to form an all-party committee for celebrations.Rulers in Maharashtra did not find anything glorious about the state in the last 50 years and they didn’t try to project Maharashtra’s achievement, he said. 

They have anyway nothing to tom tom about with acute load shedding, water scarcity, farmers’ suicides and deteriorating law and order situation staring them in the face, he said. What could have saved the day for Maharashtra government would have been convening a special session of Legislature to mark the state’s Golden Jubilee year, he said. 

In Gujarat, all 18,000 villages, towns and municipal corporations had simultaneously organised 'Jaynad' and 5.5 crore Gujaratis performed aarti-pujan of Gurjar Dhara by joining in recitation of ‘Jay Jay Garvi Gujarat', Bhandari said.In Maharashtra, the celebrations did not go beyond the perfunctory events in Mumbai, he added. 

BJP’s oldest ally, the Shiv Sena, also did not mince words when it came to the way Maharashtra government marked the state’s Golden Jubilee."The government here is of Congress, which was opposed to creation of Maharashtra and Gujarat state," Sena spokesperson Neelam Gorhe said. 

"Maybe the rulers thought that if they come too much on the forefront in celebrating the 50 years on a grand scale, it may not please their bosses,” she added.Had it not been for parties like Shiv Sena and other organisations who held similar functions, the government function would have looked minuscule, Gorhe said. On the Sena getting melody queen Lata Mangeshkar to sing `Maharashtra Geet’ at its function here last night, instead of the Government `requesting’ the singer to perform at the official function, Gorhe said "Lata sang on the day Maharashtra was formed 50 years ago. We wanted her to sing at the Sena function to mark the state completing 50 years."