In Jaipur royal Diya Kumari rise in BJP, an echo of estranged mentor Raje arc

The denial of the ticket to five-time MLA and ex-CM Vasundhara Raje’s loyalist Rajvi — who had been winning the Vidhyadhar Nagar seat since 2008 — reflects the increasing clout and significance of the Rajsamand MP in the party.

Kumari’s stars in the BJP have been on the rise through the past decade, with parallels already being drawn between her and Raje, who is from the erstwhile Gwalior ruling family in Madhya Pradesh and got married to the Dholpur royal family in Rajasthan.

Significantly, it was Raje who was instrumental in bringing Kumari into the ranks of the BJP before the 2013 Assembly elections, when the former was the party’s CM candidate. Kumari had joined the BJP at a rally in the presence of Raje, then BJP president Rajnath Singh and current Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who at the time was the Gujarat CM.

In the 2013 Assembly elections, Kumari was fielded from the Sawai Madhopur Assembly constituency and was pitted against both the Congress’s Danish Abrar and veteran tribal leader Kirodi Lal Meena, who contested on a ticket of the National People’s Party (NPP).

At the time, Meena, who commands a significant following in eastern Rajasthan, had left the BJP over differences with Raje and fielded candidates across the state under the banner of NPP. He subsequently returned to the BJP in 2018 and is currently a Rajya Sabha MP from the party, who has been fielded from Sawai Madhopur in this election.

Despite being a debutant then, Kumari had defeated both Meena and Abrar to win the Sawai Madhopur seat.

In 2016, Kumari and the Jaipur royal family ended up sparring with the Raje-led state government, after officials of the Jaipur Development Authority (JDA) sealed the gates of her family-owned Rajmahal Palace hotel during an anti-encroachment drive.

The pictures of the confrontation between Kumari and government officials during the sealing exercise made it to front pages of newspapers at that time, with the incident driving a wedge between Raje and her.

Even as the government stood by its decision to seal the hotel, Kumari’s mother Padmini Devi led a rare protest rally over the issue in September 2016. While Kumari, then a sitting BJP MLA, did not attend the rally, it was supported by several Rajput outfits such as the Rajput Sabha and Karni Sena. Kumari’s son Padmanabh Singh, who had been unofficially installed as the ‘Maharaja of Jaipur’ by the royal family a few years earlier, also participated in the rally.

The Rajmahal Palace incident had contributed to the anger among Rajputs against the BJP, with the community, despite being traditional supporters of the party, largely voting against it in the 2018 Assembly elections. Other issues that contributed to the ire against the BJP among Rajputs included the encounter of gangster Anandpal Singh in 2017.

Kumari did not contest the 2018 Assembly elections in which the Raje-led BJP lost. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the party however fielded her from Rajsamand, which she won by a huge margin.

Since her election as an MP, Kumari’s importance in the BJP camp has been on the rise. Over the last few years, she has found a place in the party’s state executive as a general secretary, addressed press conferences against the Congress government and led protests.

Kumari’s elevation in the BJP ranks has also led to speculation that she might be considered as a CM candidate like Raje who, despite being an MP, was picked by the BJP as its CM face ahead of the 2003 Assembly elections. However, Raje was then a five-time MP and had also served as a Union minister.

So far, despite the Jaipur royal family’s past rift with the former BJP government, Kumari has refrained from speaking out publicly against Raje or any other state BJP leader.

On Wednesday, when asked by reporters about the discontent among Rajvi’s supporters, Kumari declined to comment, but maintained that Bhairon Singh Shekhawat was a “father figure” to her. She also said that she had spoken with Rajvi the day she was declared the candidate.

BJP councillors from Vidhyadhar Nagar have already met Kumari after she was announced as the party candidate. She too has been meeting workers and supporters, besides visiting temples. She even paid a courtesy visit to Governor Kalraj Mishra.

“It is a matter of happiness and good fortune for me that this time I have got a chance to contest elections from home,” said Kumari.

Kumari’s late father and former titular king of Jaipur, Bhawani Singh, had contested the 1989 Lok Sabha elections on a Congress ticket from Jaipur, but was defeated by the BJP candidate.

Kumari’s step grandmother and former queen of Jaipur, Gayatri Devi, had been elected as an MP from the Jaipur constituency three times in 1962, 1967 and 1971. She had won these polls by record margins on the Swatantra Party ticket.