Prominent Gurjar community leader in Rajasthan Kirori Singh Bainsla and his son Vijay Bainsla on Wednesday joined BJP in the presence of Union Minister Prakash Javadekar at party headquarters here.
Senior Bainsla said he is impressed with the performance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his decision to join the saffron party is also essentially guided by this factor.
Mr Bainsla was associated with the Gurjar Arakshan Sangharsh Samiti and led it from the front especially during the wave of protests across the state.
In fact, protest marches organised by the movement have at times led to violent clashes with civil authorities.
Gurjars generally feel that dominant castes, such as Jats and Yadavs have over the years cornered the benefits of OBC reservation.
In 2007, Mr Bainsla led a protest in which 27 people were killed in clashes with police, media reports say.
During the tenure of BJP Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, Mr Bainsla held meetings with state government interlocutors and the Gurjar community was given the status of special reserved category.
Gurjars are linguistically and religiously diverse. The Hindu Gurjars are mostly found in Rajasthan, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and some parts of Punjab.
The father-son duo later met BJP chief Amit Shah.
