Birthday bash on the wrong tracks
[ 23 Nov, 2006 0125hrs ISTTIMES NEWS NETWORK ]

ALLAHABAD: Samajwadi Party workers here took the cake for a highly imaginative celebration. They took it to the railway line, stopped a train to cut it and celebrate chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav's 67th birthday.

As the members of Samajwadi Party Chhatra Sabha unleashed the innovative celebration at the city's railway station on Wednesday, the passengers of the Kanpur-bound 5004 Chauri Chaura Express seemed in no mood to join the party.

The drama was inacted on platform No 2 at 8.30 am in the morning. For obvious reasons the railway officials and the police looked the other way.

The train and its passengers were held hostage for 17 minutes after its schedule departure time.

The handful of workers had even organised a 'panditji' to conduct a 'puja' on the railway tracks. The 'panditji' gleefully kept chanting 'mantras' as RPF and GRP looked on helplessly.