Extended Diwali in Sanwar Lal Jat's Gopalpura village

AJMER: Gopalpura, a remote village in Bhinai block in Ajmer district celebrated the new-found status of Sanwar Lal Jat, who was born and brought up here. Dozens of villagers went to New Delhi to congratulate Jat after his oath-taking ceremony and there was not a single house where sweets were not prepared and dance was not performed. Twenty years ago, in Gopalpura, the land was barren and people were forced to drink fluoride water.
To reach Bhinai, one has to travel on Ajmer-Bhilwara highway till Bandanwara. From there, one has to take a small road deep into the interiors for nearly 10 km to reach Bhinai. From Bhinai, there is a small road to Gopalpura, again for another five kilometres. The main occupation of villagers is cattle raising where Sanwar Lal Jat was born and still living with his family.
Most of the villagers are Jats and they also work hard in the fields to get two crops in a year. There is no or little underground water, but nowadays, the Bisalpur dam supplies water to this patch of the block. "This is all because of Sanwar, he brought big pipelines to the Bhinai block which is the real gift for this place," said Mahendra Choudhary of the village.
On Sunday, some houses including that of Sanwar Lal Jat were locked as many went to New Delhi to see their man as a Union minister. "Some took their own vehicle while some went in train last night to Delhi," said Kailash Choudhary of the village. Sanwar Lal took his wife Narmada, son Ram Swaroop and his wife for the occasion in New Delhi. Only some servants were left behind to look after the cattle.
The others in the village sat in front of TV sets and when they saw Sanwar Lal Jat taking oath as Minister of state at around two in afternoon, there was a large cheer and drums started beating. Women of the villages performed dance on choupal and men shouted slogans, "This is a great moment for this village that will remain long in history," added Mahendra.
Earlier, Sachin Pilot from Ajmer was also a Union minister, but he was from Congress. "We thank all the senior leaders of BJP who gave the opportunity to Jat to be in the Central team," said Arvind Yadav, president of district BJP.
For Ajmer, the occasion was important as for the first time in the history of the district, there were two ministers from the district in Rajasthan government -- Vasudev Devnani and Anita Bhadel -- and now a Union minister -- Sanwar Lal Jat.