By IANS,
Lucknow : The grounds were being spruced up, the guesthouses were booked and the dignitaries had started trickling in… the stage was set Wednesday for the swearing in of Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Akhilesh Yadav as the youngest chief minister of Uttar Pradesh.
Akhilesh Yadav, 38, will be sworn in along with some one dozen ministers at around 11 a.m. at the sprawling La Martiniere College grounds here.
The evening before, VIPs and dignitaries from outside the state had started arriving to a red carpet treatment by officials of the Estate and Protocol department. All government owned guest houses, the VIP and VVIP guest houses at Mall Avenue and Meera Bai Marg have been booked for the guests and the roads leading to the La Martiniere grounds.
SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav and his team of hand picked close aides were personally overseeing the arrangements and coordinating with officials in the run up to the mega event that is likely to be witnessed by more than 10,000 people, including party workers, government officials, Bollywood stars, religious leaders, industrialists and VVIPs from other political parties.
These include the Bharatiya Janata Party’s L.K. Advani, Janata Dal-United’s Sharad Yadav and Left leaders Prakash and Brinda Karat. Amongst the industrialists expected to attend are Anil Ambani and Subrata Roy Chaudhary of the Sahara Group as well as others from Kolkata, Gujarat and Mumbai.
SP insiders said the Bollywood contingent would include Sridevi, Boney Kapoor and Anil Kapoor.
Special arrangements have been made for the VVIP and the media contingent. Intelligence officials and special security units, including commandos, have taken over the venue.
Traffic has been diverted from the venue and special transformers have been stationed at the venue so as to ensure that there is no power cut during the swearing in ceremony that is likely to last for two hours.
Officials from the Raj Bhavan are also coordinating with the local officials. More than two dozen cars, fitted with red beacon lights, have been readied by the Estate department and would be parked at the venue so as to ensure that the newly sworn in ministers drive back in their official cars.
The SP’s IT wing will be doing live webcasts of the event on its Facebook page, YouTube and on the Dailymotion website.