SAFFRON TIES

Matriarch Vijaya Raje Scindia joined the Jan Sangh in the late sixties after starting her political career with the Congress. A look at the members of the family still with the BJP

VASUNDHARA RAJE Fourth child of the Rajmata, she is serving her second term as chief minister of Rajasthan. Born in 1953, she entered the Rajasthan assembly in 1985. Raje was first elected to the LS in 1989 on a BJP ticket and won four subsequent elections to the Lower House. Raje served as a junior minister in the Vajpayee govt before resigning in 2003 to take over as the first woman CM of Rajasthan. She lost the 2008 state polls, but won in 2013 to become chief minister once again.

VIJAYA RAJE SCINDIA Born in 1919 as Lekha Divyeshwari Devi, she married the last Maharaja of Gwalior. Known as Rajmata of Gwalior, Vijaya Raje started her political career contesting the Lok Sabha election from Guna in 1957 on a Congress ticket. She later switched over to Bharatiya Jan Sangh — an earlier avatar of the BJP. She is believed to have provided financial assistance to the Jan Sangh in its initial days and rose to prominence during the Ayodhya movement. She was a vice-president of the BJP till 1998. She died in 2001.

YASHODHARA RAJE SCINDIA Born in London in 1954, she is the youngest daughter of Vijaya Raje Scindia. Yashodhara was elected a member of Madhya Pradesh assembly in 1998 on a BJP ticket and got re-elected five years later. She was a minister in Madhya Pradesh government between 2005 and 2007 before getting elected to the Lok Sabha in a byelection to Gwalior constituency in March 2007. She was re-elected to the Lok Sabha in 2009 and resigned in December 2013 to return to state politics. She is currently a minister in the Madhya Pradesh government.

DUSHYANT SINGH Born to Vasundhara Raje and Hemant Singh in 1973, he is a three-time Lok Sabha MP. An alumnus of St Stephen’s College of Delhi, Dushyant Singh won his first parliamentary election in 2004 and has represented Jhalawar in the subsequent Lok Sabha polls.