The AICC headquarters at Ashoka Road and adjoining 10, Janpath, the official residence of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, reverberated with golden era Bollywood song “Tum jiyo hazaaron saal, saal ke din hon hazaar, happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you”, as hundreds of party workers thronged the venue to celebrate their leader’s birthday.
All these, besides bursting crackers in a big way, happened throughout the day despite Mrs Gandhi’s announcement that she would not be celebrating her birthday on Thursday to avoid inconvenience to party men coming to Delhi from outside.
Apart from colourful celebrations by the party workers from across the country, many of the top Congress leaders called on her as she turned 65 to wish her. Union ministers Pranab Mukherjee, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Virbhadra Singh, C.P. Joshi and Pradesh Congress Committee chiefs and AICC office-bearers were among those who personally extended birthday greetings to her.
Interestingly, among the first callers were DMK leaders including T.R. Baalu and Tamil Nadu chief minister M. Karunanidhi’s daughter M. Kanimozhi.
“We came here only to greet her,” Ms Kanimozhi told reporters even as DMK leaders dismissed any political motive to the visit in the wake of the controversy over the 2G spectrum allocation scam and the upcoming Assembly polls in Tamil Nadu.
Among the Congress chief ministers, who came over to greet her, included Ashok Gehlot of Rajasthan and Kiran Kumar Reddy of Andhra Pradesh.