New royal rises in Rajasthan, BJP MP Diya in power race

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, October 14

On the eve of the Assembly elections, the desert state of Rajasthan is witnessing the rise of a new royal.

BJP’s Rajsamand Lok Sabha MP Diya Kumari, who hails from the erstwhile Jaipur royalty, is quietly entering Rajasthan BJP’s power race, which is already crowded due to the presence of several stalwarts, including former CM Vasundhara Raje and Union Ministers Gajendra Shekhawat and Arjun Ram Meghwal.

But Diya Kumari’s rise in the party is making political observers sit up and watch, especially as it coincides with the gradual decline of Raje’s fortunes in the saffron organisational structure. Uncanny similarities between the personalities, political careers and clouts of the two royals is adding to the suspense.

Both are tall leaders of Rajputs, a segment that influences nearly 60 of the state’s 230 Assembly seats and can sway the election. Both are royals. Raje was married into Rajasthan’s Dholpur royalty and Diya brings to the table the legacy of grandmother Gayatri Devi of the Jaipur royal family.

In 2003, the BJP hand-picked Raje, then a Lok Sabha MP, to contest the state elections and later projected her as the CM face. This year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led BJP central election committee has fielded Diya Kumari, a Lok Sabha MP, from the Vidyadhar Nagar seat in Jaipur.

Significantly, Diya has replaced five-time MLA Narpat Singh Rajvi, a Raje loyalist and son-in-law of former Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat to land a seat seen as the safest in Jaipur.

Diya’s rising prominence in the BJP became even more evident on September 25 when she was tasked with managing the stage and accorded special attention during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Jaipur to mark the conclusion of the BJP’s Parivartan Yatra.

Unlike Raje, Diya has been seen joining BJP’s agitational programmes against Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on the ground and participating and leading mass mobilisations ahead of the elections. During the BJP’s “Nahi Sahega Rajasthan” campaign against the Congress government in the state, Diya even agitated outside the CM’s residence.

Further, she has been regularly seen speaking for the party from the national headquarters here, with the BJP slowly but surely crafting her career to some end.

It was Vasundhara Raje who, as CM, fielded Diya Kumari in the 2013 Assembly polls from Sawai Madhopur against tribal stalwart Kirori Lal Meena (who had quit the BJP over differences with Raje) and Congress’ Danish Abrar. Diya won the election. Later, after Jaipur Development Authority officials sealed the doors of Diya’s family-owned Rajmahal Palace in Jaipur, differences surfaced between Diya and Raje, with the episode believed to have caused a lot of consternation among the Rajputs who largely voted against the BJP in 2018. Diya was not fielded in the 2018 polls, which the BJP lost. She was later named a candidate from the Rajsamabd Lok Sabha seat in 2019 from where she won emphatically.

Fielded by Raje in 2013

• Vasundhara Raje, as CM, had fielded Diya Kumari in 2013 Assembly polls from Sawai Madhopur seat, which she won
• Diya Kumari was not fielded in the 2018 state elections, which the BJP lost
• She was later fielded from the Rajsamand Lok Sabha seat in 2019, which she won