LS polls: Royal family candidates heading towards a comfortable victory

PTI, Jun 4, 2024, 5:00 PM IST

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New Delhi: Descendants of royal families, who are contesting the 2024 Lok Sabha elections on BJP tickets, have performed fairly well with a majority of them leading with a huge margin on their respective seats.

Jyotiraditya Scindia, the scion of the erstwhile royal family of Gwalior who severed his 18-year-long ties with the Congress in 2020 and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), is leading with over 5 lakh votes from the Guna parliamentary constituency in Madhya Pradesh.

The Union civil aviation minister is pitted against the Congress’ Rao Yadvendra Singh.

This is the first time in his political career that Scindia (53) is contesting as a BJP candidate from Guna, which was earlier represented by his late father Madhavrao Scindia and late grandmother Vijayaraje Scindia.

The BJP is having a clean sweep in Madhya Pradesh by securing huge vote margins on all 29 seats.

Another royal candidate Dushyant Singh, Prince of Dholpur state in Rajasthan, who has been elected four times in the past, is also leading from Jhalawar-Baran with over 3.5 lakh votes against his rival Urmila Jain of the Congress.

Mahima Kumari Mewar, the wife of Vishvaraj Singh Mewar who is a descendant of Maharana Pratap, is also leading from Rajsamand Lok Sabha seat in Rajasthan with around 4 lakh votes against her nearest rival Dr Damodar Gurjar of the Congress.

In Rajasthan, the BJP has won one seat and is leading on 13 out of 25 parliamentary constituencies.

In the south, Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar, 31-year-old US-educated who was crowned as the titular head of the erstwhile Mysuru royal family in 2015 making him the 27th ‘King’ of the Wadiyar dynasty, is a BJP candidate for the Mysuru Lok Sabha seat.

Yaduveer is leading with over 1.3 lakh votes against Congress’ candidates M Lakshmana from this seat.

As per the latest trend, the BJP has won one seat and leading on 15 seats out of 28 parliamentary seats in Karnataka. The Congress is leading on 10 seats.

In Odisha, while contesting as a BJP candidate, Malvika Devi, wife of former MP Arka Keshari Deo, a member of the royal family of Kalahandi district, is leading with about one lakh votes against her nearest rival Lambodar Nial of Biju Janata Dal (BJD).

The BJP has put up a significant performance in Odisha as its candidates are leading on 19 out of 21 seats.

Among the Northeastern states, Kriti Singh Debbarma, a member of the Tripura’s erstwhile royal family, who is a joint candidate of the regional party Tipra Motha and the BJP, is leading with over 5.5 lakh votes on Tripura East seat from her nearest rival Rajendra Reang of the Communist Party of India (CPI).

Tripura has two parliamentary constituencies and the BJP is leading on both of them.

Among the losing royal challengers of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections is Vikramaditya Singh, who is contesting from the Congress from the Mandi Lok Sabha seat.

Singh, the heir of the Rampur royal family and son of the late Virbhadra Singh, a six-time chief minister of Himachal Pradesh, is trailing as his rival, actress-turned-politician Kangna Ranaut of the BJP, is ahead of him with over 70,000 votes.

Another royal candidate is Rajmata Amrita Roy from the Krishnanagar seat in West Bengal, who is also trailing by over 50,000 votes against Trinamool Congress’ (TMC) Mahua Moitra.

Roy, married to the family of Maharaja Krishnachandra Roy, is revered as the “Rani Maa” or Queen Mother by the constituency, carrying a legacy rich in tradition and aristocracy.