Prominent 'Jat khap chaudharies' remained away from Amit Shah meeting

Many prominent 'khap chaudharies' (panchayat chiefs) from the electorally influential 'Jat' community stayed away from Union minister Amit Shah's meeting with the community members in Delhi on Wednesday despite being invited.

According to the sources, invites had been sent to the prominent 'chaudharies' from 'Baliyan Khap' of which senior Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait was also a member, but very few of them chose to attend the meeting with Shah.

Sources said that some of the powerful khap leaders said that they had no knowledge about the meeting in Delhi.

''No one knows who were invited from our khap.....we have no idea why the meeting was called and what assurances were given by Amit Shah,'' said Surendra Singh, who was a' chaudhary' of the 'Tomar Khap'.

BKU national president Naresh Tikait, who represents the 'Baliyan Khap' questioned the Delhi meeting saying that Shah was nowhere to be seen when the farmers and the members of the 'Jat' community were sleeping on the roads during the farmers' agitation. ''Why is it that the BJP remembers the Jats only at the time of the elections?.....All I know is that some BJP leaders from the community were called at the meeting,'' Naresh Tikait said on Thursday.

All India Jat Mahasabha president Jitendra Chaudhary also said that he had no information about the meeting. ''We were not called as the BJP would have to answer some tough questions,'' he added.

State president of the National Jat Mahasangh Rohit Jakhar said that the BJP had only 'cheated' the 'Jat' community.

Shah, who met the leaders from the community, reportedly assured them that the government would consider the demand for reservation for the 'jats' after the assembly polls.

The BJP leader had also extended an olive branch to the RLD president Jayant Chaudhary, who hailed from the community, and said that Jayant was free to join the BJP alliance.

Jayant, however, rebuffed Shah and said that he was not someone who would go back on his words. ''I am not a chavanni (25 paisa coin) which will easily flip,'' he said while addressing a meeting at Khatauli in Muzaffarnagar on Thursday.

Barely a few days back union minister Sanjiv Baliyan had met Naresh Tikait at the latter's residence in Muzaffarnagar. According to the sources the BKU leader had then refused to issue any appeal to the farmers in favour of the BJP in the forthcoming assembly polls.

Earlier Naresh Tikait had not only made an appeal to the people to ensure victory for the SP-RLD alliance in the forthcoming assembly polls in the state but also handed over the symbol authority letters to two alliance nominees though he later said that BKU was an 'apolitical' organisation and that the farmers were free to vote according to their preferences.

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