JAIPUR: Fear of a shift in the crucial Rajput vote bank forced the Vasundhara Raje government to do a U-turn and agree to a CBI inquiry into the death of gangster Anandpal Singh , who was killed in an encounter on June 24.The killing had triggered a wave of protests in Rajasthan with the gangster's family calling the encounter fake and the Rajput community as well as opposition leaders backing the demand for a CBI probe. The state government had offered to constitute a special investigation team to probe the encounter as the protests gained momentum and spread across the state. But this was rejected. The protests grew violent in the gangster's home district Nagaur on July 12, a day before his cremation.One person died of bullet injuries while several others, including 16 cops, were injured. Leaders of the Rajput community said the cremation was "forcibly conducted" by police as the family had refused to accept Singh's body unless a CBI probe was ordered. News reports in vernaculars claiming that 12,000 Rajputs were booked for arson and other crimes during the July 12 protests further enraged the community. A BJP leader said the state unit received inputs that Rajputs — who have overwhelmingly backed the party since its Jan Sangh avatar — had become vocal against the Raje government after the encounter.Opposition also joined the protests, with former union ministers and ex-royals like Digvijay Singh, Bhanwar Jitendra Singh and Chandresh Kumari backing the demand for a CBI probe. Not just Rajputs, leaders from Brahmin, Meena and Gurjar communities also backed this demand.But the staunchest criticism of the Raje government came from within when BJP MLA Narpat Singh Rajvi, son-in-law of the tallest leader of the community in Rajasthan — the late Bhairon Singh Shekhawat — shot off a letter this week to BJP's national president Amit Shah. He said the Rajput community was feeling "insecure" and "betrayed" ever since its youths were harassed by the police after the July 12 protests.The pressure from the Rajput community, which sent 21 BJP MLAs in the 200-member assembly, forced the Raje government to not only agree to a CBI probe into the encounter.

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