The Ganesh festival sees households and 'Mandals' or groups installing idols of the lord at home and in pandals across Maharashtra, but decades ago Agroli village pioneered a different approach which is now emulated by many other villages. Way back in 1961, communist leader Bhau Sakharam Patil proposed the 'One Village One Ganpati' policy during the Ganesh festival in Agroli, now part of Navi Mumbai region.

Each family need not install its own idol but there should be one common Ganesh idol for the village which would save on expenditure, comrade Patil suggested in the aftermath of a flu epidemic in the area. The village's inhabitants were mostly fisherfolk and saltpan workers (Agari-Koli) whose income sources were salt-making, fishing and paddy cultivation.