Lalu Prasad, family stay away from Mulayam Singh Yadav birthday bash

SAIFAI (ETAWAH): A day after Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and chief minister Akhilesh Yadav gave the swearing-in ceremony of Nitish Kumar in Patna on Friday a miss, RJD chief Lalu Prasad and his family stayed away from the celebrations on the eve of Mulayam's 76th birthday here on Saturday.

A grand celebration was held to usher in Mulayam's birthday and also to promote the Green UP, Clean UP campaign, with AR Rehman flying down here to perform.

Lalu is related to Mulayam's family, with his youngest daughter Raj Lakshmi married to Mulayam's grand nephew Tej Pratap. While the rest of the SP clan stayed away from Nitish Kumar's swearing in, Tej Pratap, who is also SP MP from Mainpuri, remained in attendance, in Patna.

Tej, who was expected to return to Saifai on Saturday along with Laloo and his family on a chatered flight to attend Mulayam's birthday bash, reached Saifai airport with Raj Lakshmi.

"The RJD chief is busy in Patna with the formation of the government in Bihar," he said on his arrival.

"We have not sent out invitations to political leaders. Here, it is Samajwadi Party workers who celebrate," said senior leader and Mulayam's brother Shivpal Yadav, when asked if Lalu Prasad would be attending the celebrations in Saifai.

Akhilesh Yadav too stayed away from Nitish's swearing-in as he had to co-odinate the Clean UP, Green UP show and flew down to Saifai on Friday to welcome AR Rehman.

Initial indications that Mulayam or Akhilesh may attend the swearing-in had given rise to talk about a political coming-together after Samajwadi Party had walked out of the grand alliance in Bihar after some initial bonhomie.