THE QUEEN’S GAMBIT
BJP is banking on half-a-dozen princesses to win back its Rajput support base and trump the Congress in the Assembly elections
It is preposterously early to rouse a rani from her slumber. But she is up and ready, immaculately attired in pastel chiffon and set to mingle with the public. The princess is, for once, unmindful of the filthy streets in this rocky hinterland in Sawai Madhopur on the eastern fringes of Rajasthan.
Diya Kumari, 42, the only child of the last titular maharaja of Jaipur, the late Bhawani Singh, is among the six erstwhile princesses fielded by BJP for the Assembly elections on December 1. Leading this royal sextet is former chief minister Vasundhara Raje, her- self of blue blood and once again BJP’s nominee for chief minister.
At 8.30 every morning, Diya emerges from the suite she has hired as her campaign headquarters at the Sawai Madhopur Lodge, a palatial property near Ranthambore National Park that was once home to her ancestors and is now a luxury hotel. She then proceeds towards the interiors of Sawai Madhopur, her chosen constituency which is named after one of her ancestors. It’s a tough calling but it has to be done, she says. Shrugging off her usually reserved demeanour, she stops by a cluster of hutments and engages with the women preparing the day’s meal. Diya, the proud mother of two minor maharajas, relishes the chapatti they offer and even tries her hand at churning butter. She insists on filling her own tumbler from the nearby handpump.
The princess, who is not shy about her aspiration to rule—“Why can’t I be a queen like it happens in the United Kingdom,” she told INDIA TODAY in May this year—is evidently getting the hang of the life on the other side. The women don’t want her to leave. They break into an impromptu chorus: “Mai to bhagi, bhagi aayi vote dene, chullah jalaana chhor ke… to tu kyon jaat hai? (I have come running to vote for you, forgetting to light my stove…so why’re you leaving now?).”