Political leaders gather at wedding of Lalu Prasad’s son Tej Pratap; Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, Rabri Devi exchange pleasantries

PATNA: A galaxy of political leaders from around the country, most of them from the Opposition parties, attended the grand wedding ceremony of RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav’s elder son Tej Pratap Yadav in Patna on Saturday.

Tej Pratap, 29, who served as Bihar’s health minister for 20 months, tied the knot with Aishwarya Rai, the elder daughter of RJD legislator and former minister Chandrika Rai at the sprawling Patna Veterinary College grounds. She is the granddaughter of former Bihar chief minister Daroga Prasad Rai.

Prominent among top Opposition leaders who attended the wedding included former Uttar Pradesh CM and Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, who came with his wife Dimple; senior Congress leaders Digvijay Singh and Sanjay Nirupam; NCP leaders Praful Patel and Tarique Anwar; rebel JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav; and RLD chief Ajit Singh.

Bihar Governor Satya Pal Malik, CM Nitish Kumar, Union ministers Ram Vilas Paswan of LJP, Upendra Kushwaha of RLSP, and RK Singh of BJP also attended the ceremony along with former Union minister Ram Jethmalani, BJP leader and MP Shatrughan Sinha, Jharkhand minister Saryu Rai and former Maharashtra minister Krupashankar Singh also attended the wedding ceremony.

While RJD leaders claimed Congress president Rahul Gandhi and his sister Priyanka Gandhi were scheduled to attend, they had not reached the wedding venue till late in the evening.

Lalu Prasad Yadav’s wife and former Bihar CM Rabri Devi were seen exchanging pleasantries with CM Nitish Kumar as they sat on a sofa together. Yadav’s younger son and Bihar Opposition leader Tejashwi Yadav sat between his mother and Kumar for some time and had a few words.

Lalu Prasad Yadav, who was granted six-week provisional bail by Jharkhand High Court a day ago, was seen keeping a low profile throughout the ceremony. Convicted in five cases of the fodder scam and sentenced to 27 years and a half in jail, he came to Patna from Ranchi, where he was in jail since December last, on a three-day parole on Thursday. Yadav has been restrained by parole conditions from engaging in political activities during his stay in Patna.

Nearly 30,000 people, many of them RJD supporters who came from across Bihar and Jharkhand, witnessed the wedding rituals and partook of the delicacies at the grand feast, said RJD leaders.

Courtesy: Express News Service