The big guns of the BJP have deserted their Delhi office, a gloomy place today anyway, for the festivities in Ahmedabad as Shah’s son Jay marries his college classmate Hrishita Patel to whom he got engaged last July. Hundreds of rooms in the city’s best hotels have been booked for the very many VVIPs, including Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, Manohar Parrikar, Piyush Goyal, JP Nadda and Suresh Prabhu. Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani, Adani Group founder Gautam Adani, RSS leader V Satish and godman Baba Ramdev are among the attendees.
The Ahmedabad police have deputed hundreds of personnel to supervise traffic on all roads leading to the wedding and reception venues. On hand are a dog squad, a bomb disposal squad and anti-sabotage squad and an army of private bouncers for “largest gathering of VVIPs in the city”, the Ahmedabad Mirror reports. The city has gone into a minor lockdown to ease the movement of the country’s top politicians, though it’s uncertain that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be there.
Despite the high profile guests, the ceremony is expected to be a simple affair. The sombre mood and possibly some tactics to avoid the media waiting for a comment from Shah have cost the bridegroom his baraat. The procession to a live band that was planned earlier was cancelled and the wedding party assembled at the venue instead.
Here are some speculation from Twitter on Shah’s mood today.
Its @AmitShahOffice son's wedding. Wonder his dilemma.. to cry or not to cry.
— Sharanya (@Sharanyashettyy) February 10, 2015
#DelhiDecides #KiskiDilli #AAPSweep even Amit Shah wont be attending his son's wedding - i think must be calling mp's for Chai pe charcha
— GAUTAM C (@trustgautam216) February 10, 2015
Why is Amit Shah not disturbed and enjoying his son's wedding? Coz he was clear. If BJP wins. .Modi Modi. If BJP loses. .Bedi Bedi!
— deepal trivedi (@DeepalTrevedie) February 10, 2015
Amit Shah attending his son's wedding. Timing critical. Parallels can be drawn with Rahul Gandhi's visit to Phalin hit Orissa #OnResultDay
— shivendra singh (@shivendra15) February 10, 2015