This Jaadugar in Jodhpur Recalls Ashok Gehlot’s Time as a Magician

Gopal Jaadugar campaigns for the Congress party in poll-bound Rajasthan using magic tricks.

Meet Gopal Jaadugar, Congress' magician campaigner!

(Photo: Kamran Akhter/The Quint)

Video Editors: Ashutosh Bhardwaj, Abhishek Sharma

Old friend and erstwhile colleague of former Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, this magician in Jodhpur has an unique way of campaigning for the Congress.

Gopal Jaadugar doesn’t shout party slogans. Instead, he goes around the poll-bound city in Rajasthan performing magic tricks to ask for votes for his party’s candidates.

From making rival BJP’s flags disappear in a bag to bringing out a flag with the Congress emblem out of thin air, to conjuring up rupee notes to attack demonetisation, Gopal Jaadugar always has a few tricks up his sleeve.

The magician says he learnt his tricks from Gehlot’s father Lakshmi Singh Gehlot.

“I worked with Ashok Gehlot’s father, Lachman Singh Gehlot, from 1974-1976. On 22 October 1976, after he passed away, Ashok ji performed at a show in 1978. He had told me that this was his first and last show where he was performing alone. He joined politics thereafter.” 

Gopal Jaadugar

Gopal, too, had tried his luck in politics with the Congress four times but could not win a seat. This year, he has withdrawn his nomination in favour of the Congress’ Ayub Khan who is standing from the Soorsagar constituency.

Having once shared the stage with Ashok Gehlot, Gopal remembers the former CM’s favourite magic trick. “Ashok ji used to perform one magic trick very well. He used to light a candle and turn it into a flower,” he recalls.

Mulling over the fact that the art of magic is being neglected in the world of TV and internet, Gopal said, “if the government pays more attention, the art of magic can do wonders!”

Rajasthan is slated to go to polls on 7 December.