Long queues of SUVs and cars. Endless boxes of sweets, marigold strings trying to hold on to the icy winds and growing mounds of bouquets carelessly dumped in a corner.
2A Mall Avenue, the official residence of former chief minister Kalyan Singh, returned to life on Saturday as thousands of Bharatiya Janata Party leaders and workers thronged the bungalow to wish the veteran leader on his 81st birthday.
After an uncanny silence on his birthday since the past few years, Mr Kalyan Singh seemed to have enjoyed a sudden spurt in his popularity graph and almost the entire BJP in UP, led by former national president Rajnath Singh and state BJP chief Laxmikant Bajpai, turned out to wish the leader.
“This is where home is and on January 21 my Jan Kranti Party will merge into the BJP. I will not be joining the party right now due to certain technical reasons — (Mr Kalyan Singh is an Independent MP and if he does join the party, he is liable for disqualification) — but my heart is already in the party,” he told reporters.
Mr Rajnath Singh, who arrived to wish Mr Singh, said, “His heart is in the BJP and other technical issues do not matter. For us, he is back to where he belongs.”
A large number of hoardings with BJP leaders of all statures and positions wishing Mr Kalyan Singh on his birthday stood all around his bungalow while the veteran leaders sat in his drawing room, surrounding by blowers and heaters to keep the cold away.
Interestingly, the name of Ms Kusum Rai — an estranged acolyte of Kalyan Singh — also figured in one of the hoardings but it was not known if she had wished her one-time mentor or not. Ms Kusum Rai had fallen out with Mr Kalyan Singh when the latter left the BJP for the second time in 2009.
Meanwhile, the presence of senior BJP leaders at Mr Kalyan Singh’s residence on Saturday was designed to send out a clear message that he had been whole-heartedly welcomed back into the BJP fold, without any malice.