Central minister Arjun Singh throws a grand reception on Saturday for the wedding of his grandson Aishwarya Singh with Devyani Rana.
NEW DELHI: It will be a sparkling spectacle of royalty for the second successive day on Saturday as central minister Arjun Singh throws a grand reception here for the wedding of his grandson Aishwarya Singh with Devyani Rana, who is related to the Nepal monarchy.
The list of invitees to the event will also include the powerful political elite like Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
Devyani Rana, closely related to India's erstwhile royal Scindia family, was earlier engaged to the crown prince of Nepal, Prince Dipendra, who killed his father, mother and seven other members of the royal family before killing himself.
She is working with the United Nations and maintains a residence in New Delhi as well as Geneva.
Belonging to the Rana family of Nepal from her father's side, Devyani's mother is Usha Raje, hailing from India's Scindia family and the younger sister of Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje.
Friday saw a big turnout of the erstwhile royalty of India in their impressive attire, most of them related to one another by marriage. About 2,000 people turned up for the wedding.
The Saturday event was expected to be a much smaller affair with only about 400-500 names on the guest list, said the staff at 17, Akbar Road.
In the presence of Chief Minister Vasundhara and nephew Jyotiraditya Scindia, the wedding was held at their traditional abode, the Scindia villa. Besides there was Karan Singh, Gaj Singh of Jodhpur, apart from the royalty of Jaipur, Kapurthala and even Mysore. The former King of Bhutan Jigme Singye Wangchuk also attended the ceremony.
An official at Human Resources Development Minister Arjun Singh's residence said: "There may be some difference in the guest list on Saturday" but added, "we don't know who all have been invited for this reception by them (the Scindias)".
From among Arjun Singh's colleagues, the wedding saw only Home Minister Shivraj Patil, but the reception may see many more from this club.
Arjun Singh's staff wouldn't say much about the attires and the menu, nor other arrangements, but if these were to match the Friday wedding on any scale it is expected to be pretty grand.
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