Jaipur, June 1
Sticking to their demand, Gujjar representatives today told the BJP leaders, who had come to the sit-in protest site at Pilupura for talks, that they would not move from the railway tracks for anything less than the ST status. When told that the state government could not meet their demand, they said in that case they would chalk out their future strategy within the next 24 hours.

Hopes of a resolution to the Gujjar agitation had come alive with the arrival of BJP MP from Bharatpur Vishvender Singh for talks with Gujjar leaders here this evening. However, following the meeting, Vishvender Singh, who is scion of the Bharatpur royal family, said the Jats would support the Gujjar’s cause. He offered the resignation of his wife and BJP MLA Divya Singh as a mark of solidarity.

Meanwhile, mobile medical teams for on-the-spot postmortem of the dead bodies also arrived at the protest site today. The postmortems are likely to begin tomorrow morning.

Pilupura is the epicentre of the agitation in Bharatpur district where Gujjar leader Kirori Singh Bainsla is squatting on the railway tracks with thousands of his supporters and the dead bodies of 12 persons who died in police firing on May 23.

Vishvender Singh along with BJP MLA from Bikaner Devi Singh Bhati had reached the protest site this evening and talked to Bainsla and other leaders for over half an hour during which he told them that the state government would not be able to recommend to the centre an ST status for the community. The Gujjar leaders told him that they would not move from the site till they received a copy of the letter recommending ST status.

This was the first visit of BJP leaders to the protest site since the beginning of the current crises. Vishvender Singh told the Gujjars that he was visiting them in his personal capacity as he had not been authorised by the government to mediate peace.

Three sets of mobile postmortem vans have also arrived at the site to conduct postmortems. Bainsla had this morning agreed to get the postmortem of the bodies done by state doctors after AIIMS refused to come to the state for the job.

Bainsla had, however, demanded that two of the three doctors in each team should be Gujjars. He had also demanded that the four dead bodies lying at the Bharatpur Hospital be brought to the protest site for the autopsy. Giving in to both these demands, the state government has sent special teams with two truckloads of equipment, generators and flood lights for the postmortem of the 18 bodies in a makeshift theatre room.

The mobile vans that remained stationed almost 1 km away from the train tracks have gone to Bayana for the night. Sources add that since the teams had reached very late, postmortems would begin tomorrow at 6 am.

Similarly, the government has dispatched mobile medical teams for Kushalidurra in Sawai Madhopura where protestors are squatting with two bodies and Sikandra in Dausa where six bodies are with the protestors. The Gujjars at Sikandra have demanded that the 14 bodies lying at SMS hospital here should also be sent to the protest site for the autopsy. The government had yesterday conducted the postmortem on one of the 14 dead bodies here but the relatives of the victim did not come to claim the body today.