Summary:
Jodhpur: Chief minister Vasundhara Raje reached Jodhpur on Thursday afternoon on a two-day visit and in a whirlwind round, inaugurated and laid foundation stone of a number of projects in the city.Beginning with the inauguration of overbridge at Saran Nagar named after the Tejaji, a local deity revered by Jat community, Raje laid the foundation stone of another bridge in Rajput dominant locality in BJS Colony. The bridge has been proposed to be named after former vice-president of India Bheron Singh Shekhawat.While addressing the gathering at a public meeting in Saran Nagar, she claimed that developmental works worth Rs 13,500 crores have been carried out in Jodhpur despite of the fact that the former Congress government left a debt of Rs 1,200 crores.Raje also made announcement of some projects in Jodhpur but these announcements will remain just announcement in view of the assembly elections barely few months away.On Saturday, before leaving for Jaipur, Raje will be inaugurating a few more projects and might also be meeting a delegation of the advocates of Jodhpur, who have been on strike for over a month now against the demand of the Udaipur circuit bench.Raje’s visit of Jodhpur, home town of Ashok Gehlot and central minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, ahead of the assembly election, is being viewed as a very crucial visit for the party, wherein the party leaders are not only willing to highlight the developmental works done in Jodhpur crediting them with the party’s achievements but also encash the opportunity to exhibit their loyalty and strength.In a gesture of appeasement of the purportedly antagonized Rajput community in view of Anandpal encounter and opposition of Shekhawat for the post of state party president, she Raje laid the foundation stone of an over bridge in Rajput dominant locality, proposed to be named after Bheron Singh.Similarly, in order to ensure the support of conventional Congress loyalist Jat community, Raje began with the inauguration of an over bridge in Jat dominant locality, by naming it after Tejaji.Though, there was no apparent resistance of Raje from Rajput Community during foundation stone lying ceremony of the over bridge, supporters of Khinvsar MLA Hanuman Beniwal, however, shouted slogans against Raje..