Saifai town had an extended Diwali celebrating the birthday of its most famous son Mulayam Singh Yadav. The entire town and streets were lit up and houses were decorated to mark the birthday of the SP chief on November 22. It is also being celebrated as Environment Day and a million saplings are to be planted across the State.
A two-day cultural extravaganza began on Saturday evening with a musical feast at the Athletics Stadium, Saifai, where Oscar-winning composer AR Rahman and his group regaled the audience. The event drew over a lakh fans and followers of the veteran politician, envoys from some 10 countries, movie stars and industrialists also participated.
The guest list includes almost everybody who is somebody from former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda to Rashtriya Janata Dal chief lalu Prasad, and from Bollywood stars Amitabh Bachchan, Salman Khan and Hrithik Roshan to business tycoons.
First to reach Saifai on Saturday were the former general secretary of the SP Amar Singh and former MP Jayaprada. Both were expelled from the party in January 2010. Both are yet to be formally readmitted to the party.
large-sized lED screens have been set up at vantage points to telecast the party live. All Government accommodation — guest houses, circuit houses and dak bungalows — and hotels have been booked in neighbouring Mainpuri, Etawah, Firozabad and Agra to host the VVIP visitors. With the influx of several VVIPs and celebrities, the Saifai airstrip was spruced up and security beefed up around the venue.
like previous year, Mulayam Singh reached the venue — Saifai stadium riding a Victorian-style ‘buggy’ and cut a 76 kg cake at 12 hrs midnight. In 2014, Minority Affairs Minister Azam Khan had celebrated the 75th birthday of Mulayam Singh Yadav at his home town in Rampur and courted controversy by saying that Dawood Ibrahim and Abu Salem had financed the lavish bash.
Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav said, “Netajis birthday is being celebrated as environment day. Besides, creation of infrastructure like roads, bridges and thermal power stations, conservation of environment is equally important and there is an urgent need to create awareness among the people for conservation of environment.’’ Asked about the gift he plans to present to his father, the CM said that in politics there was nothing like gift, the support of the people for Netaji and environment are the biggest gifts for his father. “The AR Rahman show at Saifai stadium has been organised for creating awareness on environment conservation,” said MP, Dharmendra Yadav, who is looking after the preparations.
Massive fireworks lit up the night sky as people made a beeline for the village to wish their leader a long life and pray for his good health. “Netaji’s ties with Saifai are emotional. He is a father figure, our godfather,” said Mahesh Yadav, an enthusiastic youth worker who was busy organising the grand show. Over 10 quintals of flowers were ordered from different towns for decorating the stadium and the stage. 15 quintals of Banarasi laddus have been supplied by the Kanpur firm to be distributed among the locals. The Opposition parties have however criticised the bash terming it “as wasteful expenditure of the public money and cruel joke with the poor people of the State.”