Bengaluru: Former Congress President Rahul Gandhi and his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra (Party General Secretary) flew to Bengaluru yesterday to participate in the wedding reception of KPCC President D.K. Shivakumar’s daughter Aisshwarya, who tied the knot with Amarthya Hegde. 

Grandson of former CM S.M. Krishna, Amarthya is the son of Cafe Coffee Day founder late V.G. Siddhartha and Krishna’s daughter Malavika Hegde. The wedding was held on Feb. 14. 

It was an opulent ceremony at Prestige Golfshire Club in Devanahalli where the reception was held. Shivakumar went to the Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru to receive Rahul and Priyanka.  

Before their arrival, Shivakumar had taken to social media to tell his supporters and well-wishers not to gate-crash the wedding venue. He asked those without invites to bless the couple from the comfort of their homes keeping in mind the social distancing and Corona norms. Shivakumar put out the message because there were hundreds of gate-crashers both at the sangeet and the wedding.

Joining Rahul Gandhi were Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot, Karti Chidambaram, former PM H.D. Deve Gowda, Governor Vajubhai R. Vala, Congress National General Secretary K.C. Venugopal and Randeep Singh Surjewala, the General Secretary in-charge of Karnataka. Former Opposition Leader in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad and Puducherry CM Narayanaswamy too were present. 

The who’s who of Bengaluru, MLAs, MLCs and former legislators from the Congress, BJP and JD(S) were there to bless the couple. Many senior IAS and IPS officers were also present. It took almost two hours to reach the venue with a huge pile-up of cars on the road. The reception was live-streamed on social media.

The entire plush resort was booked by Shivakumar and all other guests were asked to vacate two days before the reception. Apart from the Police, private security was arranged. The menu included at least 100 varieties of choice dishes from North and South India — vegetarian and non-vegetarian — besides an array of desserts prepared by over 200 cooks and culinary experts from five star hotels.