Patna: Last-minute preparations for RJD chief Lalu Prasad's elder son Tej Pratap Yadav's wedding on Saturday are on in full swing. The family's guests, including Lalu's daughters and his sons-in-law have already reached Patna.

10 Circular Road, where the RJD family resides, is all decked up with marigold flowers and colourful lights.

Family members and close associates of Lalu have taken up the responsibility of monitoring preparations in Lalu's presence. His eldest daughter Misa Bharti and husband Shailesh Kumar were seen moving from one place to another to oversee preparations.

Lalu's confidant Bhola Yadav and his former personal secretary Binod Shrivastava, who was the Lok Sabha candidate from Motihari but lost,seemed busy carrying out last-minute arrangements.

The Veterinary Ground, where Tej Pratap's baraat (wedding procession) will go, is equally decked up and a stage was being erected there for the bride and groom.

This is the same ground where deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi's son Utkarsh Tathagat's wedding was solemnised on December 3, 2017. A separate pandal has been erected for VIP seating.

The bride's side has hired around 80 cooks from Kanpur for the big day. Around 200 people are helping them prepare different kinds of food. RJD leader and party spokesperson Niranjan Pappu, who also has a major catering business, is looking after catering at Lalu's residence. Special care is being taken to prepare food to be served to the groom's side.

Manoj Bhatia, who is responsible for food management, said, "We have been asked by the bride's side to prepare food for 10,000 guests. There are various items on the menu. We have given special instructions to the cook to cook food with less oil and less spice, keeping Lalu's health in mind, so that he, too, can enjoy the food."

There is no non-vegetarian fare, only vegetarian dishes are being cooked. Some of the items on the menu include Punjabi kulcha, imarti of Kanpur, paratha of Agra and the Bihari dish litti-chokha. These apart there will be the regular vegetarian fare of paneer, aalu kofta, puri, mixed vegetables. For dessert there will be gulab jamun and ice cream. RJD sources said the number of guests at the ground will cross 20,000 as many RJD workers and well-wishers will also be attending. Around 5,000 invitation cards have been distributed apart from invitations sent over WhatsApp, SMS and email.

Four types of musical band parties have been hired for Tej Pratap's baraat. The groom will head for the wedding venue on a ghodi (mare).

Once the food and other related functions are over, the night-long wedding rituals will take place at 5 Circular Road, the house of the bride, Aishwarya Rai. Only three leaders have confirmed their attendance. This includes two former chief ministers of Uttar Pradesh, Akhilesh Yadav and Mulayam Singh Yadav.

Congress leader Digvijay Singh, too, has confirmed his attendance. Lalu's confidant and MLA Bhola Yadav claimed Congress president Rahul Gandhi and his sister Priyanka Gandhi have also confirmed their attendance.

"Rahul and Priyanka have confirmed they will be there," Bhola said.

INVITED

• President Ram Nath Kovind
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi
• Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu
• Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan
• Home minister Rajnath Singh
• Chief minister Nitish Kumar
• Deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi
• Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan
• BJP president Amit Shah
• Finance minister Arun Jaitley
• Congress president Rahul Gandhi
• Sonia Gandhi
• Priyanka Gandhi
• Akhilesh  Yadav
• Mulayam Singh Yadav
• Tariq Anwar (NCP)
• Praful Patel (NCP)
• Digvijay Singh (Cong)
• Shatrughan  Sinha (BJP MP)
• Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal
• Former Delhi CM 
• Sheila Dikshit
• Former UP CM Mayawati
• nBengal CM Mamata Banerjee (Minister Firhad Hakim to represent her)
• ndhra Pradesh CM 
• N Chandrababu Naidu
• DMK leader
• M Karunanidhi
• All the cabinet ministers of the Centre and ministers of state
• All MPs of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha
• All the  cabinet ministers of the Bihar government, MLAs and MLCs

CONFIRMED

Mulayam Singh Yadav
Akhilesh Yadav
Digvijay Singh
Ram Vilas Paswan