Though her father and scion of erstwhile Jaipur’s royal family late Bhawani Singh contested unsuccessfully for Lok Sabha elections from Jaipur in 1989, but Diya Kumari was formally inducted in to the BJP on Tuesday.
“I made a conscious decision to join the BJP,” she said.
The ruling Congress and Opposition BJP both have been trying to woo former royals in Rajasthan. The state, which was formed in 1949 consisting of 18 princely states, is known as the land of kings and queens. The scion of former royals have been quite active in politics.
In last parliamentary elections, the scion of Kota’s royal family Ijyaraj Singh won on Congress ticket for Lok Sabha while Bhanwar Jitendra Singh of Alwar royal family elected from Alwar as Congress nominee. Though Chandresh Kumari Katoch, the daughter of then Maharaja of Jodhpur late Hanwant Singh, settled in Himachal after her marriage, the Congress fielded her from Jodhpur for Lok Sabha and she won the election. Her brother, the scion of Jodhpur royal family had served as Rajya Sabha member in year 2002.
The scion of Bharatpur royals, Vishvendra Singh joined the Congress when differences cropped up between him and then CM Vasundhara Raje.
But Rohini Kumari, the member of Karauli’s royal family and Sidhi Kumari ,the daughter of Bikaner ‘s former royal family won Assembly seats from Karauli and Bikaner city respectively.
“I joined the politics to serve the people. because members of my family like my late grandfather Maharaja Swai Man Singh, my late grandmother Rajmata Gayatri Devi and my later father all have had a special bonding with the people,” says Divya Kumari.
“We see a revival of feudalism in politics, the former royals have been seen quite active and their supporters openly call them Maharaja and Maharani,” said social scientist Dr Rajiv Gupta.