Over 100,000 invites for Mulayam kin's pre-wedding ceremony

A staggering 100,000 invites, including to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, have been sent out for Samajwadi Party supremo's grand nephew's Saturday pre-wedding ceremony in Saifai village where mouthwatering dishes like bedai, baati-chokha and halwa soaked in desi ghee will be served.

Saifai village, some 25 km from Etawah, is buzzing with frantic activity for the 'tilak' ceremony of Tej Pratap Singh Yadav, Lok Sabha member from Mainpuri, who will marry Raj Laxmi, the youngest daughter of former Bihar chief ministers Lalu Prasad Yadav and Rabri Devi, Feb 26 in New Delhi.

Both Modi and mega star Amitabh Bachchan have confirmed their presence, officials said.

Mulayam Singh had personally invited Modi for the ceremony.

A team from the prime minister's Special Protection Group (SPG) has already visited Saifai to asses the security scenario, a police official said, adding a rehearsal with an Indian Air Force (IAF) plane landing has also been done at the village air strip.

Also flying down to Saifai Saturday are a string of Bollywood stars, singers, politicians, state and union cabinet ministers, chief ministers of other states and bureaucrats.

Family sources told IANS that more than 100,000 invites have been sent to relatives, politicians, village folk, journalists, judges and celebrities from other fields.

Pakistani singer Adnan Sami, who recently participated in the Saifai Mahotsava, will croon this time too.

Special chefs camped in the native village of the Yadavs, offering mouth watering dishes which includes Gujarati food, traditional UP and Bihari food and also cuisine tailormade for the Bollywood stars.

Special on the menu would be 'sarrata' (special sour raita), bedai, dahi-ke-aloo, baati-chokha, ulda poorie, paneer filled chola-bhature. Among the sweet delicacies are imarti, jalebi served with chilled rabri, sohan halwa, kulfi and moong ki daal ka halwa soaked in pure desi ghee.

(Mohit Dubey can be contacted at mohit.d@ians.in)