Rajput outfit members to wear black bands during PM's Jaipur visit

A Rajput organisation today said its members will wear black bands when Prime Minister Narendra Modi visits the city on Saturday, registering their protest over the cases filed against them after violence in Nagaur district last year.

The Shree Rajput Sabha president reiterated that the community will not vote for the ruling BJP in the coming Rajasthan assembly elections if the cases are not withdrawn.

The Rajasthan police had registered 24 cases after violent protests at Sanwrad village in Nagaur district in July last year following the death of Anandpal Singh, a Rajput allegedly involved in several criminal cases, in an encounter.

On Monday, a BJP Yuva Morcha delegation headed by Surendra Singh Shekhawat met Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, reportedly asking her to consider withdrawing the cases.

State Home Secretary Deepak Upreti and Additional Director General of Police (Crime) P K Singh also attended the meeting, sources said.

But Rajput Sabha president Giriraj Singh Lotwara, who is among the accused in three of the cases, claimed that Shekhawat's delegation did not represent the community.

The people who met the government do not have representation in the community. The government is trying to mislead the Rajputs by holding such a meeting, Lotwara said.

He added that the community will boycott the BJP in the assembly polls later this year.

Recently, Gujjar leaders too had threatened to hold a protest during Modi's visit.

But they withdrew the agitation call after the Vasundhara Raje government clarified its position on quotas for Gujjars in government jobs and education institutes.

An order on Monday said Gujjars were entitled to reservation under the 21 per cent Other Backward Classes (OBC) quota as well as the 1 per cent quota for Most Backward Classes (MBC).

Some Rajput leaders were booked for rioting, inciting mobs and wrongful confinement during their protest against the police encounter last year.