Sefai bash: RJD, JD-U stay away

Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav’s 76th birthday celebrations this year are getting known more for controversies than for the actual event.

The celebrations that began on Friday night in Sefai village in Etawah district with a concert by music maestro A.R. Rahman who performed, ostensibly, for the Green UP campaign, was bereft of political presence outside the Samajwadi Party.

RJD president Lalu Prasad Yadav and JD(U) president Sharad Yadav opted out of the birthday bash at the last minute and SP MP Tej Pratap Yadav, who is Mr Lalu Yadav’s son-in-law tried to explain the absence of his in-laws by saying that they were busy with government formation in Patna.

The RJD and JD(U) leaders, sources said, decided not to attend the birthday bash after the Samajwadi leadership stayed away from Mr Nitish Kumar’s swearing-in ceremony a day earlier.

Senior UP minister Azam Khan also stayed away from the celebrations in Sefai and sources said that it was the presence of Mr Amar Singh that kept the minister away. Mr Khan finally reached Sefai around midnight on Saturday and returned after wishing Mr Yadav.

The absence of the Bachchan family, including SP MP Jaya Bachchan, was also much talked about among the guests.

In Lucknow, UP governor Ram Naik chose to stay away from the birthday celebrations on Sunday after expressing his resentment at the “breach of protocol”.

The governor was reportedly upset at the invitation cards for the unfurling of the tricolour at the 207-foot-high flag post at the Janeshwar Misra Park on the occasion of the SP patriarch’s birthday. A sum of `1 crore has been spent on building the flagpost.

The invitation cards carried the name of the governor without taking requisite permission from him. Moreover, the invitation was sent to him by courier.

A Raj Bhavan press release said on Sunday that the governor had wished Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav over the phone from Pune.

In another development, suspended IPS officer Amitabh Thakur has demanded strict action against the state government for misuse of official machinery and resources in celebration the SP president’s birthday in Sefai on Saturday.

His complaint emailed to the governor speaks of reported “misuse of government paraphernalia and public money for celebrating the birthday”. Quoting media reports, Mr Thakur said that during the Sefai function, around 3,000 employees were used merely for ensuring cleanliness while police force from 15 districts had been deployed.