Jaipur:
Gujjar leader Colonel Kirori Singh Bainsla, who had led the twin Gujjar agitations in Rajasthan, on Saturday joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the state.
The agitation to demand Scheduled Tribe (ST) reservations for the Gujjars had turned violent and led to police firings during the Vasundhara Raje regime in which 70 people were killed.
The agitation was called off after the Raje government promised to grant reservation to Gujjars in Rajasthan under a special category of nomadic tribes.
Bainsla's inclusion in the BJP now aims at wooing the Gujjar vote, estimated at around seven per cent of the electorate in the state.