JAIPUR: In what could be a setback to the
ruling BJP in the
bypolls for Ajmer and Alwar parliamentary seats as well as
Mandalgarth sssembly seat (Bhilwara district), various
Rajput organisations in the state have declared support to the Congress.
Giriraj Singh Lotwara, president of Jaipur-based Shree Rajput Sabha, said the Rajput as well as Ravana Rajput and Charan Rajput communities have decided to support Congress in the bypolls becasue the ruling dispensation has been anti-Rajput on major issues concerning the three communities.
"Be it the release of film 'Padmavat', handling of Anandpal encounter case, Chatur Singh Soda encounter case of Barmer or reservation on economic basis, the state BJP government has been following a policy that is against the three communities," Lotwara alleged. Congress candidate for Ajmer Lok Sabha bypoll, Dr Raghu Sharma was present at the media briefing held at Shree Rajput Sabha Bhawan here.
Lotwara and leaders of over a dozen organisations of the three communities present at the event alleged that BJP government in the state has worked against them in past four years. "We have been clamoring for justice but the BJP government has been treating a particular community as its vote bank while ignoring our pleas," said Lotwara. "Considering the atrocities on the three communities and the back-stabbing of state BJP government, it has been decided that this time we will ensure that BJP candidates are defeated in the bypolls," he added.
Later, in a press statement released, the leaders said that Rajputs and Ravana Rajputs "watered the plant called BJP" but under a planned conspiracy of head of present BJP government (Vasundhara Raje), the communities have been relegated to oblivion by pushing their leaders out of the political setup.
The three communities' joint Sangharsh Samiti formed to oppose BJP in bypolls alleged that even photos of a BJP stalwart like Bhairon Singh Shekawat were missing from the party offices in Rajasthan and his family was being ill-treated. Similarly, another Rajput stalwart, former external affairs minister Jaswant Singh, was denied a ticket in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
Samiti's state spokesman Durg Singh Khimsar said the body of Ajmer MP and former union minister Sanwarlal Jat was placed at party headquarters for public mourning in order to appease the Jat community but the same honour was not accorded to bodies of Alwar MP Mahant Chand Nath, former minister Badugujjar or Mandalgarh MLA Kirti Kumari. "The CM did not find it appropriate to even attend their funerals," alleged Khimsar.
The Samiti leaders said Rajput ministers, MPs and MLAs in BJP or MPs never opened their mouths, leave aside standing up against the government, for this ill treatment and injustice meted out to the community. The Samiti leaders said these Rajput leaders would be taken to task at an appropriate time.
