Congress MLA from Deeg-Kumher Constituency in Bharatpur district of Rajasthan, Vishvendra Singh, who belongs to the erstwhile royal family, has openly threatened to relaunch a massive Jat Reservation agitation on October 4, 2018. He has demanded the government to either withdraw cases against his community members or file charge sheet in them within three days, failing which he will galvanize such a massive protest that the state government will be unable to handle it.
According to a report, Singh was arrested on Tuesday for demanding the withdrawal of cases lodged against his community members during the June 2017 protest. They were arrested for blocking the railways and roadways route and obstructing smooth implementation of law and order in the state. “72 cases were lodged during the agitation which was held to demand reservation for Jat community in Dholpur and Bharatpur districts. The government had assured to withdraw the cases but no progress has taken place in one year,” he said.
Maintaining that an intervention from the chief minister can resolve the issue, the minister handed out an ultimatum of 3 days after which he will launch a massive Jat agitation. The Congress MLA reached the police superintendent’s office along with his supporters and courted arrest with the demand. They were later released.
Earlier, in 2017, Singh launched an agitation to secure reservation for Jats in OBC. He, subsequently, called off the stir then after the government assured him that it would take up the OBC commission’s report in the next cabinet meeting and senior officials shared with him the timeline to implement quota process.
Rajasthan is just a few months away from its Vidhansabha polls and considering how sensitive jat reservations issue is for the locals there, Congress is leaving no stone unturned to compound the problems for the incumbent chief minister Vasundhara Raje. The state is yet to act on his demands.