People in Gujarat villages adopted by Arun Jaitley mourn his death

People of a group of villages in Dabhoi taluka of Vadodara district on Saturday mourned the demise of BJP leader Arun Jaitley by downing shutters of shops and holding condolence meetings. Jaitley, a three-time Rajya Sabha MP from Gujarat, had adopted Karnali, Pipaliya, Vadia and Baglipura, all part of Karnali group panchayat, in December 2014 under the Centre's Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana.

Jaitley died at AIIMS in Delhi on Saturday afternoon after prolonged illness. He was 66.

"People of Karnali and Pipaliya, Vadia and Baglipura expressed grief by closing shops and attending condolence meetings. Jaitley had rolled out a plan to modernise Karnali village, situated on the banks of Narmada river," Rajni Pandya, chief priest of a famous Lord Shiva temple in Vadodara told PTI.

"Jaitley helped develop various facilities in Karnali where lakhs of Lord Shiva devotees visit the Kuber Bhandari temple every year," Pandya said.

Jaitley had spent a day in his adopted village on June 1, 2015, and had also laid the foundation stone of a water tank and modern post office. Among his plans for the village was construction of a bridge between Karnali and Chandod, located on the other side of the Narmada river, so that devotees could visit religious places without having to take a long road detour.

"We had been holding special prayers in the temple every day from August 10, soon after Jaitley was admitted in AIIMS. The puja continued till today," he said.