Politicians, celebrities at Gadkari son’s wedding bash

NAGPUR - Several senior political leaders and celebrities descended on Nagpur for Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Nitin Gadkari’s son Nikhil’s grand wedding reception.

Nikhil, 26, married Rutuja, 22, daughter of Purushottam and Shubhangi Pathak, Thursday.

However, President Pratibha Patil, Congress president Sonia Gandhi, son Rahul Gandhi, opposition leader Sushma Swaraj, both the Ambani brothers, the top brass of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and other bigwigs skipped the bash held Friday night, official sources said.

Among those who attended were BJP veteran L.K. Advani, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, Jharkhand Chief Minister Arjun Munda, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh, Rajya Sabha opposition leader Arun Jaitley, Shiv Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray, former Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan and former BJP chief Rajnath Singh.

Bollywood celebrities including Hema Malini, Shatrughan Sinha, Anupam Kher and Kirron Kher also were present at the reception.

There was a massive air traffic jam over Nagpur since Friday afternoon till Saturday morning as scores of VVIPs were flying in and leaving after attending the wedding reception.

According to sources, at a point in time, 30 aircraft were seen hovering over the Nagpur sky. In total, there were around 50 chartered flights coming to and going out of Nagpur, several of which had to be routed to Jalgaon, Akola and Amravati for parking.

All regulars flight to and from Nagpur were disrupted, inconveniencing common passengers as their flights were delayed by three-five hours.

The reception hall was decorated with thousands of white roses and orchids while soft instrumental music played in the background. Purely vegetarian food was served on the occasion.

Many other weddings in and around Nagpur were badly affected as highways and roads leading to Nagpur were jammed with thousands of invitees proceeding towards the Reshimbag ground in the old city quarters, where political rallies and exhibitions are held. The general wedding reception for over 2 lakh people is being held there Saturday evening.

More than 2 lakh people have been invited from the entire Vidarbha region and Nagpur. Several party workers have also been called to this reception.