Villagers were pleasantly surprised to see Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot tried his hands at Kabaddi after launching the first-ever eight-day long ‘Rajiv Gandhi Gramin Olympic Games’ at Pal village in Jodhpur district.

Gehlot was joined by the state MoS Ashok Chandana, and Krishna Poonia, an international gold-medallist of Indian discus thrower and chairman of Rajasthan State Sports Council, and rival players were some Congress leaders. Though, the match lasted for a few minutes.

The chief minister hoisted a sports flag and saluted the students’ march past and passed out a parade of students’ band. He also handed over a burning torch marked with RG-Gramin Olympic Sports-2022 to sportspersons.

Speaking at the inaugural event, Gehlot said the Urban Olympics would also be organised in Rajasthan beginning the next year 2023. It is just a ‘Khelega Rajasthan, Jeetega Rajasthan’ aim that is being fulfilled.

The CM said that over 30 lakh sports persons, including men and women of all age groups, were playing in 11,000-gram panchayats covering 44,000 villages. The games of Kabaddi, Tennis Ball cricket, volleyball, hockey, shooting volleyball, and Kho-Kho were being held at Gram Panchayat, Block, District, and State levels for the first time, he added.

The games are open to everyone regardless of caste, creed, and political affiliation, and an atmosphere and culture of sports would be developed right from villages, appealing to all political parties head Gehlot said.

The state government has sanctioned a sum of Rs.40 crore for this very feature in its annual budget 2021-22. About two lakh teams have been set up and the games are being held as per the standard norms to not only boost the young and senior players but also drive them for a better career in the sports field.

Later, a Book of World Records (London) on RG-Gramin Olympic:2022 was presented to the CM for organising the first-ever mega sports events at the village level by its manager.

A similar inaugural event was organised at Bikaner where Education Minister B D Kalla hoisted the sports flag and took the salute of the players’ parade.