Parties fixated on royalty's enduring influence in Rajasthan

BJP has five royals in the fray while Congress has placed faith on one.

Jaipur: In Rajasthan’s political landscape, both BJP and Congress seem to have reposed faith in royalty to see them through this tough election battle.

BJP, which believes dynastic politics is democracy’s biggest enemy, however seems fixated on royalty. It has five royals in the fray while Congress has placed faith on one.

Leading the BJP bandwagon is former Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, who is a member of the Dholpur royal family, by virtue of marrying into the family. She herself hails from the Scindia royal family of Gwalior. A five-term MLA and five time MP, she is, however, a mass leader and connects at the grassroots level with equal ease. With no royalty tag when campaigning, she is very popular amongst the rural women.

She is contesting from her usual seat of Jhalarapatan against Congress’s Prem Bairwa.

The other most talked about royalty is Jaipur’s erstwhile princess Diya Kumari, who is the present MP from Rajsamand. She first became a MLA from Sawai Madhopur in 2013.

Her win in 2019 Lok Sabha elections, where she polled over eight lakh votes and won by a margin of over five lakh votes, made it one of the biggest wins for BJP that year. Said to be one of the contenders for the chief ministerial post if BJP comes to power, she is said to be a people’s princess, accessible and within people’s reach.

She is up against Congress’s Sitaram Agarwal from Vidyadhar Nagar constituency.

Bikaner’s princess Siddhi Kumari hailing from the Bikaner royal family is a three-term MLA from 2008 onwards. She is contesting from Bikaner (East) against Congress’s Yashpal Gehlot. She has been in the news for her increase in assets over the last five years, which has been the highest amongst the candidates now. In 2018, her total wealth stood at Rs 8.89 crore but in 2023, her wealth has surged to over Rs 100 crore. She is often called the absentee MLA.

BJP has fielded another royal from Ladpura seat under the Hadoti region. Kalpana Raje is the wife of Kota royal scion, Ijyaraj Singh, who was the Congress MP from Kota-Bundi constituency in 2009. After being denied a Congress ticket for 2018 Assembly polls, he and his wife both joined BJP. She had won the seat in 2018, getting around 52.8% vote share. She says her only ideology is to serve the people of her constituency, which comprises more than 80% rural population. She is contesting against Congress’s Naimuddin Guddu.

Mewar royal scion Vishvaraj Singh Mewar is contesting from Nathdwara on a BJP ticket. BJP is banking on the reverence, love, loyalty and respect for the Mewar royal family in the area and also that he is a descendant of Rajput warrior Maharana Pratap. Rajputs and Brahmin constitute a major part of the constituency’s 2.35 lakh voters followed by OBC and tribal voters. But he is up against Assembly speaker and veteran Congress leader C P Joshi, who is a five-term MLA from this constituency and has huge influence in the area. A frank, simple person, Joshi was a one-time confidant of Rahul Gandhi.

Congress has fielded Bharatpur royal family scion, Vishvendra Singh from Deeg-Kumher constituency. A three-time MP, he has represented Bharatpur and is two-term MLA. He is also a minister of tourism and Civil Aviation in Rajasthan. He sided with Sachin Pilot during the 2020 crisis but later said that Ashok Gehlot is his undisputed leader. WIth a major influence in the area, he would be contesting against DR Shailesh’s Singh of BJP.

“The royal families' clean image and a perception that they have always served the people for ages and would continue to do so, make parties seek them out. These royal families still maintain a strong connect with the masses, they employ a lot of people and the common people still hold them in high regard, Also that many of them have taken the political plunge and continue to influence a large section of their community and others is another important factor for parties to bank on them, says Prakash Bhandari, a political analyst.