On his birthday, Mulayam Singh Yadav says he wants 75 seats in UP as gift

LUCKNOW: SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav today appealed to the people to gift him victory in "at least 75 seats" in UP in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections as he celebrated his 75th birthday with cakes and crackers and announced a slew of schemes, including a super-speciality hospital.

"As you celebrate my birthday today, take a pledge that you will give me at least 75 seats from UP alone... And we will change the government at the Centre," Yadav said.

Later, when he asked party workers what they would do after the function, they replied, "We will make you PM (Prime Minister)."

A 75 kg 'laddu' was distributed among supporters at the party district office here as workers burst crackers and cut cakes at various places in the state.

At the party state headquarters, a 'Kavi Sammelan and Mushaira' programme was organised where poets showered praised on Mulayam asking the gathering to vote for the "mulayam" (soft)-hearted neta.

The ruling SP also organised a number of programmes, well advertised in all leading newspapers about "return gifts" to the people on the party supremo's birthday.

Mulayam's son and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav laid the foundation stone of 'Avadh Shilp Gram', a place to showcase the Culture and Art on the lines of Dilli Haat (in Delhi), and inaugurated radio taxis and online payment system for commercial vehicles in the state.

He also laid the foundation for a super-speciality cancer institute here in the presence of Mulayam.