In Rajasthan, royals have been pushed to edge of poll arena

JAIPUR, AUG 22: Royalty has held sway in Rajasthan even after the advent of democracy. If Jai Narain Vyas and Mohan Lal Sukhadia called t...

JAIPUR, AUG 22: Royalty has held sway in Rajasthan even after the advent of democracy. If Jai Narain Vyas and Mohan Lal Sukhadia called the shots, Maharaja Karni Singh and Rajmata Gayatri Devi also stayed in the limelight.

But no longer so. Just a handful of people from former royal families are left in the political arena, that too, on the fringes. Vasundhara Raje Scindia, daughter of Vijayraje Scindia and daughter-in-law of the ruling family of Dholpur, was the sole blue-blooded winner during the last elections from Rajasthan. She has been winning the Jhalawar seat on a BJP ticket since 1989.

Two other royal women, Krishnendra Kaur (Samajwadi Party) and Mahendra Kumari (Independent), who contested the elections, lost from Bharatpur and Alwar, respectively. Both were elected on BJP tickets earlier.

The BJP has re-nominated Vasundhara Raje from Jhalawar. She faces former Union minister Abrar Ahmed of the Congress. Another former ruler to get the BJP ticket is Vishvendra Singh from Bharatpur. A scion ofMaharaja Suraj Mal, he is a former member of both the Lok Sabha and the Vidhan Sabha. His wife, Divya Singh, was elected to the Lok Sabha in 1996. The Congress has put up Jagat Singh, son of former Union minister Natwar Singh, against him. Making his debut in politics, Jagat Singh is partly royal, being grandson of Maharaja Yadvendra Singh of Patiala.

Though not a favourite of rajas and ranis, the Congress is not without royalty. It has given the Alwar ticket to Mahendra Kumari, “Yuvrani” of the former ruling family. Elected on a BJP ticket to the Lok Sabha in 1996, she resigned from the party when it denied her a renomination in 1998. She fought as an Independent and finished a close second behind Ghasi Ram Yadav (Congress), pushing the BJP to third position. She was brought into the Congress by Madhavrao Scindia. The Congress rewarded her with three tickets during the Assembly polls. Her son, Jitendra Singh, was elected to the Vidhan Sabha. She faces the BJP’s Jaswant Yadav, sitting MLA.

The Congresswas eyeing the former ruling family for the Jaipur seat. Sources said it wanted either former ruler Bhawani Singh, or his wife, Padmini Devi, to accept the ticket, but they were agreeable only to the candidature of their son-in-law, Narendra Singh. The party dropped the idea, conscious of the controversy which marked the marriage of their daughter, Diya Singh, two years ago. Bhawani, whose stepmother, Gayatri Devi, won the Jaipur seat on a Swatantrata Party ticket with huge margins thrice, lost to Girdhari Lal Bhargav (BJP) in 1989. Bhargav, who has been winning since, is contesting again.

Though the royals do have some presence, they are far from centrestage. Earlier, there were 10 royal houses active in politics — Jaipur, Jodhpur, Kota, Udaipur, Bikaner, Jhalawar, Bharatpur, Alwar, Sirohi and Jaisalmer.