Sefai, in Etawah district in Uttar Pradesh, will be witness to a mega event when Prateek Yadav, the younger son of Samajwadi Party president and former chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, marries Aparna Bisht, daughter of senior journalist Arvind Singh Bisht.
The wedding, scheduled to be held on December 4, will be attended by nearly 1.5 lakh guests in Sefai. The pre-wedding rituals begin on Friday while the reception will be held in Lucknow on December 7.
The couple had got engaged in September last year and, according to their own admission, have been “childhood friends”.
“We have been friends for eight years, so you can call us high-school sweethearts,” Aparna was quoted as having said in an interview given to The Independent in the UK.
Aparna is completing her masters in international politics at the Manchester University while Prateek has done his masters in management from Leeds University. He is also into real estate business in UP.
According to family sources, as per family tradition an open invitation has been sent out to the entire village and persons in the constituency. “The food will be served from 10 am and will continue till well past midnight,” said a family member from the groom’s side.
All SP leaders, legislators and MPs and important persons from other political parties are also expected to attend the wedding.
A reception in Lucknow will have about 2,000 guests.
The wedding outfits for the bride and the groom have been designed by Tarun Tahiliani.
“The functions will be on a large scale but there will be no uncalled for display of wealth. We belong to a political family and the guest list is bound to be long. The wedding will be lavish only in terms of number of guests — not in anything else,” said one of the groom’s cousins.
The last wedding in the family was in November 1999 when his elder son Akhilesh married Dimple in Etawah in a similar manner. The wedding was followed by receptions in Lucknow, where a host of filmstars had attended.