New Delhi: Political rumour mills in Rajasthan have been abuzz since the BJP announced this week that Diya Kumari of the erstwhile Jaipur royal family will contest from the ‘safe’ assembly seat of Vidhyadhar Nagar. The move, party insiders claim, is an attempt to replace former chief minister Vasundhara Raje with a fresh royal face to appeal to the women and Rajput constituencies.
There are two reasons for this perception. The first is that 52-year-old Kumari, BJP MP from Rajsamand, is replacing incumbent BJP MLA Narpat Singh Rajvi, said to be a core member of the Raje faction of the Rajasthan BJP.
Secondly, Kumari, once Raje’s protegee, has had a tumultuous relationship with the senior leader over the last few years, but has earned the approval of the high command.
Vasundhara Raje, part of the Dholpur royal family through marriage, stands as a formidable mass leader with her own power base and a well-documented frosty relationship with the BJP’s central leadership. In the faction-laden landscape of the Rajasthan BJP, where many leaders harbour chief ministerial ambitions, Raje remains the most prominent contender. The subtext behind the BJP’s choice of candidate for Vidhyadhar Nagar is clear to all observers.
Raje loyalist Rajvi, known affectionately as Kunwar Sahab, is a three-time MLA and a former minister. He is also the son-in-law of Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, a former Vice President and CM, and one of the early architects of the Jan Sangh. He won the 2018 election from Vidhyadhar Nagar with a substantial margin of 30,000 votes. On the other hand, Kumari, the granddaughter of Maharani Gayatri Devi, is not yet widely recognised as a mass leader.
There are indications, however, that she is being cultivated by the BJP to appeal to Rajput and women voters, which have formed the core support bases for Vasundhara Raje.
“Fielding Divya Kumari from a safe urban seat, getting her to speak on women’s issues, and putting her at the forefront of attacking Ashok Gehlot is part of the BJP’s plan to groom her to take forward the legacies of Vasundhara Raje and Shekhawatji,” said a senior Rajasthan BJP functionary, requesting anonymity.
However, Diya Kumari, dismissed the “rumours” about the reasons for her selection to fight from Vidhyadhar Nagar.
“It’s the party that decides one’s role. I am a simple worker of the party. My upbringing has been like that of any other common person. As an MP, I have always fought for our people’s rights. Now, the party has given me the responsibility to fight in the assembly,” she told ThePrint. “The atmosphere is against Ashok Gehlot, and our duty is to ensure that the BJP government comes to power.”
Kumari takes centrestage, Raje absent
Divya Kumari has been a relatively low-profile leader for years, but that seems to be swiftly changing. At the same time, Raje’s prominence in key party events has drastically dwindled.
On 25 September, during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Jaipur to conclude the BJP’s Parivartan Yatra, Raje was absent but Kumari had a conspicuous presence.
At the event, 500 women were selected to welcome the PM and showcase their gratitude for the passage of the women’s reservation bill. Kumari, along with BJP leader Alka Gurjar, was in charge of managing the conduct of affairs on the dais.
In August, when the party organised the ‘Nahi Sahega Rajasthan’ campaign against issues like paper leaks, law and order, and atrocities against women, Diya Kumari led protests in Jaipur and even picketed Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot’s residence. Raje did not participate in any of these mass public mobilisation programmes.
She also did not join the BJP’s four Sankalp Yatras, including in her own constituency. Diya Kumari, in contrast, led the yatra in Chittorgarh and also participated in her constituency Rajsamand. When the BJP raised the issue of the rape and murder of a girl in Bhilwara district to highlight the alleged rising crime against women in the Gehlot regime, they fielded Diya Kumari and Ranjeeta Koli to hold a press conference in Delhi on the subject.
“She has much to learn to match the seasoned leaders, but her willingness to engage in street-level politics will strengthen her position in the party,” said the BJP functionary quoted earlier. “She is young, represents an urban constituency, has a royal legacy— in Rajasthan, even rural women still prefer urban politicians with a dynasty legacy.”
But even before her increased visibility over the last few months, Kumari’s ascent in the BJP has been remarkable.
Raje protégée to foe & rise in BJP
In September 2013, Diya Kumari made a grand entry into the BJP in the presence of Narendra Modi, who had come to address Raje’s’s assembly rally in Jaipur. The ace shooter Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore also joined the BJP at the same event. Both Rathore and Kumari were said to be handpicked by Vasundhara Raje to bolster the party’s Rajput representation.
Soon after, Kumari was fielded in the Sawai Madhopur assembly constituency, pitted against tribal leader, Kirori Lal Mena, who had revolted against Raje. Kumari won the election, but did not contest in the 2018 state polls. She cited personal reasons, but it was rumoured that Raje was against fielding her.
In 2016, there had been a public falling-out between the two leaders when then CM Raje reportedly ordered the Jaipur Development Authority to close the doors of the Jaipur royal family’s Raj Mahal Palace Hotel since it allegedly encroached on public land.
Kumari vehemently opposed this decision, and her mother, Padmini Devi also rallied several Rajput organisations like the Karni Sena to protest against Vasundhara’s government. While the women from the Dholpur and Jaipur dynasties had once been on good terms, reconciliation seemed distant.
The BJP high command’s ties with Raje were also fraying in this period. During the 2018 assembly elections, there was bitter standoff between the central leadership and Raje over the appointment of Gajendra Singh Shekhawat as the state president— a move she opposed.
By 2019, the BJP had spotted Kumari’s potential, giving her the ticket to fight the Lok Sabha election from Rajsamand constituency. She defeated Congress’s Devji Nandan Gujjar by more than five lakh votes.
Subsequently, Raje detractor Satish Poonia, became the Rajasthan BJP president in 2019. He appointed Diya Kumari as the party’s general secretary.
In August this year, Kumari tied a Rakhi on Poonia and praised him as a leader who guided the party during tough times, hinting at his run-ins with Raje.
When CP Joshi became the Rajasthan BJP president, replacing Satish Poonia in March of this year, Diya retained her position as general secretary.
“The BJP leadership, due to its acrimonious relationship with Vasundhara Raje, chose Diya Kumar as the party’s young, woman, Rajput face,” the senior BJP functionary said. “She is now positioning herself as a leader who can take up a fight despite her royal background. She always makes herself available for party work, unlike Vasundhara, who has kept a distance from the party in the last three to four years.”
Ranjeeta Koli, a fellow BJP MP from Rajasthan, offered a similar assessment.
“Diya has always participated in organisational activities at short notice, whether it’s protests in Parliament or in Rajasthan. She does so without any ego based on her raj parivar (royal family) legacy,” Koli told ThePrint.
‘She will have to prove herself’
As Diya Kumari rises in prominence, she has also attracted a fair share of critics, both within the polarised Rajasthan BJP and beyond.
Her detractors claim that she has much to learn in order to match the political stature of Vasundhara Raje. When the BJP announced its list of candidates for the 2023 assembly elections, Narpat Singh Rajvi responded with a sarcastic video statement in which he delved into both his and Kumari’s family histories.
Rajvi said that the BJP had not only insulted the legacy of Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, but had also picked a leader who came from a royal family that had colluded with the Mughals. This reference alludes to a period in the 16th century when the Jaipur royals arranged Jodha Bai’s marriage to Emperor Akbar and had Maharaja Man Singh lead Mughal forces against Maharana Pratap in the 1576 Battle of Haldighat.
But Diya Kumari is no stranger to controversy. In the 1990s, she defied Rajput royal convention when she decided to marry Narendra Kumar, an accountant who regularly visited the palace for audit work. Her father, Bhawani Singh, reportedly secretly solemnised their marriage in his Delhi house to avoid social humiliation. She risked social censure yet again when the couple divorced after two decades of marriage.
In 2022, Diya Kumari sparked another controversy by claiming that the land on which the Taj Mahal was built originally belonged to her family and that she had documents to support this claim. Her statement came after a petition was filed in the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad court, asking the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to examine 22 locked rooms within the Taj Mahal.
But even amid controversies, Diya Kumari has substantial backing in the party and even the RSS, according to a former president of the Rajasthan BJP.
“Not only Delhi, but the RSS unit in Rajasthan also backed Diya Kumari during the 2019 Lok Sabha election. A section of RSS leadership, disenchanted with Vasundhara and Narpat Singh, supports her,” he said.
He pointed out that Diya Kumari’s social and other kinds of capital were a factor in her ascent too.
“She has ample resources to invest and wields influence as a leading socialite. Let’s not forget that one of the best hotels, Rambagh Palace, managed by the Taj Group, belongs to her. Her connection to the Himachal Sirmaur dynasty (from her mother’s side) further strengthens her position in Rajputana politics in Rajasthan,” he said.
The former state president, however, added a note of caution: “She will need to prove herself, just as Vasundhara did.”
Quest for new Rajput leadership
After the BJP’s defeat in the 2018 elections and Vasundhara Raje being in the crosshairs of the top leadership, the party has been actively seeking new Rajput leadership in Rajasthan. This effort includes the cultivation of Diya Kumari, according to party insiders.
The Rajputs constitute 10 percent of the state’s population and significantly influence more than 30 assembly seats. As a dominant caste, they play a key role in the political landscape of many rural villages.
For many decades, two prominent Rajput BJP leaders have dominated the state’s politics. Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, who played a crucial role in the BJP’s early growth in Rajasthan, led the party for nearly four decades, solidifying support among Rajputs. Vasundhara Raje succeeded him, serving as both party president and CM at different intervals over a span of twenty years. No other BJP leader came close to challenging her influence during this period, although late Union minister Jaswant Singh made an attempt with limited success.
Bahadur Singh Rathore, who served as the private secretary to Shekhawat during the latter’s tenure as Vice President, claimed in his book Dharti-Putra Bhairon Singh Shekhawat that during the Gujjar protests led by Kirori Singh Bainsla in 2008, Raje struggled to quell the unrest in the state. Meanwhile, the Delhi BJP leadership was growing impatient.
According to the book, Jaswant Singh then sought Shekhawat’s support to become the CM of Rajasthan. However, Shekhwat advised Vajpayee and Advani that, during such a challenging situation, changing the CM was an unwise decision. He recommended instead that the party should support Vasundhara to strengthen her position to effectively deal with the Gujjar issue. In response, a disappointed Jaswant Singh reportedly quipped: “Now, even to go to Jaipur, your visa will be required.”
(Edited by Asavari Singh)