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Shekhawat calls it “a great experience”

JAIPUR: It wasn’t exactly a hero’s welcome but his supporters and long-time friends received Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, the Grand Old Man of Indian politics, with a great deal of warmth when he returned to the Rajasthan capital on the eve of Independence Day after losing a bitterly fought battle in the Presidential election in New Delhi.

Welcome arches were erected for him at half a dozen places along the way from the airport to the Pink City where people cheered and shouted slogans in his support.

If none of the State Cabinet Ministers had turned up at the airport to receive Mr. Shekhawat when Kingfisher airline’s flight brought him home, it was ascribed to the engagements of the Cabinet in Jodhpur at present.

Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje and most of her Cabinet colleagues were in Jodhpur on the eve of Independence Day.

The State is having its main Independence Day function in Jodhpur this time.

Mr. Shekhawat, who has decided to stay on in Delhi, is here to attend the 13th day rites of J. P. Mathur, former State president of the Bharatiya Janata Party who had been an intimate friend of his since 1952. Among those who called on him at his residence on Civil Lines—which is the official residence of his son-in-law Narpat Singh Rajvi, who is the Industries Minister in the State—were his old friends and a good number of journalists.

While declining to talk to the media on topics, he engaged them in a long chat amid cups of tea.

However, when asked how he felt about returning to the State in this manner, he said cryptically, “I have been in politics for more than 50 years. There is nothing to feel about all these.”

Again on a positive note he said: “The election had been a great experience. I have learnt a lot.”

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