Preparations for celebration of Mulayam Singh Yadav's birthday in Rampur
Mulayam Singh Yadav will be 75 tomorrow and his Samajwadi Party has planned a grand two-day birthday bash beginning today. The show-stopper will be the party chief riding an imported Victorian buggy through the Uttar Pradesh town of Rampur, which looks like Christmas came early.
Bunches of red and white balloons line spruced-up roads along with big banners wishing Mr Yadav a happy birthday. Dividers have a new lick of paint. A 100 "welcome gates" have been put up.
The Samajwadi Party rules UP and it shows in the preps. "All departments are working to ensure it is a grand welcome," said Rampur's disrict magistrate, CP Tripathi.
Senior UP minister Azam Khan, who is organising the show in his hometown, said, "Last time we had welcomed him in a vintage car, this time for our leader we have imported a Victorian buggy. On the route, the cultural department is organising plays and other programmes."
A 75-foot-long cake will vie for attention.
Mulayam Singh is scheduled to land in Rampur at 3 pm on Friday and that is when he will go around town in the buggy. In the evening, he will attend a performance by popular singers Hans Raj Hans and the Sabri brothers. Mr Yadav will cut the giant cake at midnight.
His son and Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav and the entire top brigade of the Samajwadi Party will be in Rampur for the celebrations.
On Saturday morning Mulayam Singh will lay the foundation stone for a medical college at Azam Khan's Jauhar University.
UP capital Lucknow too is celebrating. Big hoardings line the main roads of the city as eager partymen try to better each other's birthday wishes for the SP chief.