KANPUR: People in SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav’s native village Saifai in Etawah district of Uttar Pradesh are in for a double ‘dhamaal’ (gala) this year. While the annual Saifai Mahotsav will be held from December 26 to January 8, music composer A R Rahman will perform in the village on November 22 to mark Mulayam’s 76th birthday of Mulayam.“Fun would start rolling at the main Mahotsav Pandal with a seating capacity of more than a lakh people on December 26 with a rocking musical programme. The mahotsav would also witness cricket, hockey, badminton and volley ball tournaments besides a bicycle marathon,” said Badaun MP and president of Saifai Mahotsav Organising Committee, Dharmendra Yadav.“This year there would be a double bonanza for Saifai people. Prior to the Mahotsav a gala event would be held to celebrate the 76th birthday of ‘Netaji’ falling on November 22. The day would be marked by a grand musical concert by noted musician A R Rahman and his 300-member troupe,” Dharmendra told TOI.“Moreover, on November 21 we would create awareness for environment conservation,” he added.Mainpuri MP and convener of Saifai Mahotsav, Tej Pratap Singh Yadav, said, “Arrangements for the grand show of AR Rahman and the annual Saifai Mahotsav are underway on a war-footing at the Saifai Athletics Stadium.”Tej is son of late Ranvir Singh Yadav who started the festival way back in 1997.Since hundreds of outstation guests would be coming, preparations to accommodate them are underway at guest houses of PWD and Power Corporation as well as the Regional Institute of Medical Sciences & Research.Sources informed TOI that Bollywood celebrities like Amitabh Bachchan, Salman Khan, Hrithik Roshan, Sanjay Khan and several others are likely to attend the birthday bash of the SP supremo.RJD chief Lalu Prasad, intellectuals and industrialists are also likely to grace the occasion.The Mahotsav was conceived in 1997 by a dedicated band of youths led by Ranvir. It meant to be a three-day affair where villagers had fun, made purchases from the ‘haat’ and enjoyed ‘kushti-dangal’ and ‘nautanki’.After Ranvir’s death, Mulayam institutionalized the Mahotsav and started celebrating it annually with lakhs of people converging for the affair.“A large trade fair with more than 1,000 stalls would also be organised this year as part of the Mahotsav,” said Vedvrat Gupta, secretary of Saifai Mahotsav Organising Committee.