Mulayam leads Holi celebrations in UP

Holi was celebrated across Uttar Pradesh with fervour and an added dash of political celebrations as triumphant Samajwadi Party (SP) leaders, led by party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, played the festival of colours Thursday in style.

Mulayam Singh, who was in his home village of Saifai (in Etawah district), greeted the people, along with his brother and Rajya Sabha member Ram Gopal Yadav.

Thousands of party workers and supporters jostled with each other to greet the party chief on the festival and also on his party’s spectacular performance in the just concluded polls, where it won a comfortable majority in the 403-member assembly.

At one point the situation seemed to go out of hand and the supporters tried to break the security cordon, leading to Mulayam Singh’s intervention to restore order.

Mulayam Singh was joined by his clan for Holi and local political leaders including Darshan Singh Yadav and many others smeared him with colour as his gun-toting security posse had a tough time reining in the overzealous supporters who danced in the specially-erected pandal and threw gulal on the crowd.

Mulayam Singh’s son Akhilesh Yadav stayed back at Lucknow where his party workers greeted each other.

Meanwhile, city MP and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Lalji Tandon, whose son lost the state assembly polls from Lucknow (West), held his annual Holi ‘durbar’ as usual.

Many political leaders celebrated the festival at their respective constituencies and are likely to return to the state capital later for the government formation.

At other places, Holi passed off peacefully with no untoward incident being reported, police said. There was, however, a road accident at Kosi Kalan in Mathura in which a dozen people were injured.