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| CPI leader Gurudas Dasgupta with Akilesh Yadav outside Parliament on the opening day of the budget session on Monday. (PTI) |
Lucknow, March 12: Jaya Bachchan is set to attend Akhilesh Yadav’s crowning as Uttar Pradesh chief minister despite the political distance she has been keeping from the Samajwadi Party since 2010.
A message from Abu Azmi, the Samajwadi representative in Mumbai, today confirmed the Bachchans were likely to show up at Wednesday’s swearing-in, sources said.
“Amitabh Bachchan, who is recovering from a surgery, may attend if the doctors permit him, but Jaya Bachchan is all set to attend the programme,” a message from Azmi said.
Sources said Samajwadi boss Mulayam Singh Yadav had called up Jaya after the party’s spectacular win and invited the whole family, including Abhishek and Aishwarya, for the event. Later, formal invites were sent to Jalsa, the Bachchan home.
This is the second time in three months that the Bachchans would be showing up at one of Mulayam’s family events. Last December, Amitabh and Jaya had attended the wedding of Mulayam’s second son Prateek in Saifai.
Sources said Mulayam was planning to request Jaya, once a party MP, to accept a Samajwadi nomination to the Rajya Sabha. Mulayam had re-nominated her after her Rajya Sabha term expired in April 2010 but she had turned it down.
Mulayam’s one-time confidant Amar Singh, who was expelled from the party in February 2010, has not been invited for the swearing-in. Sources claim he has been left out because Mulayam does not want to antagonise Azam Khan, who has never been on good terms with Amar.
Amar was not invited for Prateek’s wedding either.
It is learnt that Anil Ambani, the chairman of the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, and Sahara boss Subroto Roy have been invited for the swearing-in.
Third front
Akhilesh today said in Delhi there was no move to form a third front at the moment and termed his invites to Mamata Banerjee and Jayalalithaa for the swearing-in as part of an “established tradition”.
Mobbed by MPs and the media in Parliament, Akhilesh denied any move to form a third front. “Definitely not, definitely not. Nothing now. I am only meeting with people.”
The 39-year-old, who was accompanied by CPI leader Gurudas Dasgupta, scotched rumours about any tie-up with the Left. “I am just having tea with them.
“My responsibility is UP. Uttar Pradesh has to be saved from all wrongs. We have to implement the party manifesto. Whatever responsibility is given to me, I will shoulder it,” he said.
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