INTERLUDE IN DRAMA 

Jaipur, Sept. 4: The Jaipur Development Authority today opened the main entrance of the city's sprawling Rajmahal Palace, signalling an interlude in the high-voltage drama that began when an anti-encroachment team landed with a bulldozer and ran into a fuming princess.

Sources said the opening of the gates of the former royal property - now run as a hotel by a business group - followed a meeting between former princess Diya Kumari's mother Rajmata Padmini Devi and chief minister Vasundhara Raje yesterday.

"The chief minister is ours, as is the government.... She heard us out. We are satisfied," Padmini Devi had said after the meeting.

The government today issued a note saying the gates had been opened "temporarily" until an "alternative arrangement is worked out".

Earlier, on Thursday, Padmini Devi and her grandson Padmanabh Singh had hit the streets of Jaipur in a show of Rajput solidarity. The BJP's central leadership too had stepped in, sending national joint general secretary Saudan Singh to Jaipur to resolve the row. Diya Kumari, like Raje, is a BJP MLA.

The JDA had taken possession of 12.5 bighas around the palace on August 24 amid suggestions that the drive had Raje's tacit nod. Authority officials, who arrived with a bulldozer, said the JDA had in 1993 legally acquired the land, said to be worth over Rs 1,200 crore.

Diya Kumari was furious when JDA commissioner Shikhar Agarwal, said to be one of Raje's favourite officials, refused to look at a court decree claiming the family's right over the land. The government had later justified its action after the royal family marshalled thousands of Rajputs and common people from other communities for its September 1 protest.

The protesters demanded that Agarwal be sacked, the main entrance of the Rajmahal Palace be opened and that all land disputes be settled mutually or through court agreements. Today's move means one demand of the royal family has been addressed.

Some had described Thursday's march as an attempt by the family to revive its bonding with the man on the street and project Rajput unity. Rajputs account for about seven per cent of Rajasthan's population and consider Raje, who is from the Scindia royal family and is married to a Jat, an outsider. The sources said the BJP wanted an amicable solution ahead of next year's Uttar Pradesh polls where the Rajput vote is vital for the party.

Sources said national joint general secretary Singh held separate meetings with Raje and Diya Kumari. The princess, who did not join the protest, had earlier met Union minister Rajnath Singh.

Others said that while Raje has had to soften her stand, Diya Kumari too might not emerge unscathed from the row. They said the Rajputs who joined Thursday's march were disappointed with her meek submission.