Over 1,600 religious heads, and personalities from the film industry, will attend Ashok Kheny 's bash tomorrow

NICE man to celebrate b'day in style

Over 1,600 religious heads, and personalities from the film industry,u00a0 will attend Ashok Kheny 's bash tomorrow

Religious heads, film stars and politicians will participate in the 61th birthday celebrations of Ashok Kheny, Managing Director of Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise Ltd (NICE), at the High School grounds tomorrow in Davengere.

u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0 All set: Preparations in full swing at the High School groundsu00a0
u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0in Davengere where function will be held.

The maverick road builder is organising a 12-hour birthday celebration, and expects 5 lakh people across the state attending the function. "We are expecting 500 devotees of each pontiff to attend, and by this calculation there must be 8 lakh people in the audience. This is apart from our own people and the moderate estimation is 5 lakh at least," said Kheny.

The Akhila Karnataka Ashok Kheny Youth Movement is organising the function and Nagendra Prasad, president of the movement, said that the cultural programme by film stars would mark the event that would be preceded by an all-religion conclave to be graced by the pontiffs. He said 400 leading artistes, including singer Sonu Nigam and music director Guru Kiran would perform, while stars from Kannada and Hindi film industry would also attend.u00a0

"People attending the function will remember it for a long time because of the cultural programme," said Prasad. He has invited main religious heads including Shivakumara Swami of Siddaganga Matt, Vishwesh Theertha Swami of Pejawar Math, Shri Shri Ravi Shankar, Baba Ramdev, and D Veerendra Heggade of Dharmasthala.

Kheny Who?

>>Ashok Kheny is known for his controversial Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor (BMIC) that is dogging by political and legal tangle. His long-drawn battle with JD(S) Deve Gowda is a political saga in the state history. Kheny has won some 400 court cases to date.
>>He celebrated his birthday in Hassan and Mandya, Gowda's heartlands, two years ago, when the state went for assembly polls, distributing cows to widows, while calling upon the voters to defeat JD(S).
>>The election commission had condemned the act citing it was in violation of code of conduct. Kheny supported Yeddyurappa as the chief ministerial candidate and reportedly spent Rs 100 crore for the BJP poll campaign. However, his relation with Yeddyurappa seems to have turned sour now.