Patna/Jamshedpur, May 14 :
Patna/Jamshedpur, May 14:
When you are close to 'stardom', the guest list for your daughter's wedding should
glitter.
So if politicians and bureaucrats had clinked glasses at Misa's wedding, her younger sister Rohini can probably boast of a more astral presence on May 24. All because their father, Bihar supremo Laloo Prasad Yadav, seems to have decided to turn
the marriage of his second daughter into a more star-studded affair.
Laloo left for Mumbai yesterday, heavier by about 50 invitation cards, most of them meant to be distributed among leading stars of Bollywood.
Family sources said he would be attending the marriage of Maharashtra deputy chief minister Chaggan Bhujbal's daughter and has taken the opportunity to invite the stars to the
1 Anne Marg residence of his chief minister wife Rabri Devi, where Rohini will tie the knot with computer engineer Samresh Singh.
The invitation list includes top draws like Shah Rukh Khan, Sunjay Dutt, Govinda, Mahesh Bhatt, his daughter Pooja, and Sekhar Suman, among others. Only two stars had come to Misa's wedding in 1999 - actor-turned-BJP MP Shatrughan Sinha and Samajwadi Party MP Raj Babbar.
Aware of his growing popularity among film stars, specially after a television show in which his entire family was in the limelight, Laloo has lost no opportunity to use his second daughter's marriage for another starry
get-together.
The Rashtriya Janata Dal chief himself seems close to 'stardom' - with offers of anchoring a celebrity talk-show, recordings of some of his peppy slogans for commercial release and frequent appearances in television programmes all coming in a rush.
Accolades have also flown in. Sekhar Suman called Laloo a talented actor, while Pooja Bhatt finds him a 'natural'. Misa and Rohini, too, have developed rapport with stars like Pooja Bhatt and Nagma. Both are effusive in their praise for the RJD boss and his daughters.
'I came to attend a programme here but one of the main reasons for me to visit Patna was to meet Laloo Yadav and his
family. And I am impressed,' Nagma told reporters in Patna, where she had come for an anti-AIDS campaign.
One reason why he is keen on inviting the cream of Bollywood is that both Samresh and his father are based in Mumbai and Laloo would like to give the groom's family a taste of his popularity among film stars.
'Laloo Yadav himself is a star politician and that he would be popular among the film stars is but natural,' said Shyam Razak, a minister in the Rabri Devi Cabinet who recently got married to a woman from Mumbai.
It was during Razak's marriage in Mumbai last year that Laloo was introduced to Shah Rukh and Sunjay.
Laloo's invitees also include politicians like Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and former Prime Ministers H.D. Deve Gowda and I.K. Gujral.
'It (the list) cuts across political hues. But the chances of arrival look brighter from RJD
allies like the Congress and the former Janata Dal leaders,' a minister in charge of inviting VIPs said.
Sources said the state government is making elaborate security arrangements to keep unwanted people away. They said party sympathisers will be accommodated at a pandal away from the venue of the marriage. Party workers will be allowed into the compound of Laloo's bungalow, which is just behind and connected to 1 Anne Marg by a passage. The VIP guests will traipse in through the main gate under heavy security.
Another surprise on the guest list is the sprinkling of cricket officials. Laloo has sent invitation cards to Indian cricket board chief Jagmohan Dalmiya and the top brass of the Board of Control for Cricket
in India.
Sources close to Laloo, who is also the president of the Bihar Cricket Association, said top officials of all state cricket boards have been invited.
Though Laloo was not available for comment, the invitations, they said, were necessitated because of his 'failed' attempt to get BCCI affiliation for the Bihar association.
After Jharkhand was carved out of Bihar in 2000, the Indian cricket board appointed special committees to look after the cricket administration in the two states till affiliation was granted. Annoyed by the decision, the Bihar association has filed a case against the BCCI, making Dalmiya a respondent.