Modi’s maharani fights key Indian state election
JODHPUR AFP DEC7,2018- An Indian princess allied to Prime Minister Narendra Modi faced a tough battle for re-election on Friday as the hard-fought desert state of Rajasthan went to the polls.
Defeat for Vasundhara Raje, Rajasthan’s chief minister, in the western state of 47 million people would be a blow for Modi’s image as a surefire vote-winner ahead of general elections in 2019.
That the charismatic but fiery Raje is a maharani, or princess, is nothing unusual in Rajasthan, a state famous for its forts and grand palaces with peacock-filled lawns.
It is one of India’s few regions where the local royal families going back centuries, and outlasting British rule have flourished in democratic politics since independence in 1947. Raje, 65, is the daughter of a former maharaja and married an erstwhile ruler of another dynasty. Her main challenger in her constituency is Manvendra Singh, another blue blood from western Rajasthan.
Another is Siddhi Kumari, also a princess and a two-time state lawmaker who lives in a wing of her ancestral palace in Bikaner around 340 kilometres (210 miles) from the state capital Jaipur.