Will meet peoples’ expectations: Diya Kumari

JAIPUR: Former BJP MLA and erstwhile member of the Jaipur royal family

Diya Kumari

was named as the saffron party’s

Lok Sabha

candidate from Rajsamand, one of the four seats for which the BJP announced its candidates on Saturday.


Diya replaces incumbent MP Hariom Rathore, who had withdrawn from the contest due to health reasons.

Diya’s candidature was believed to have been opposed by several leaders, including former chief minister Vasundhara Raje, who had supported former MLA Hari Singh Rawat, given the Rajsamand constituency’s sizeable Rawat population.

Sources in the party confirmed that Raje was in favour of a local candidate but party president Amit Shah overruled all objections to allot ticket to Diya, who is believed to have been more keen to contest from Jaipur. However, the caste equations in Jaipur made it difficult for the party to field her from Jaipur.

Speculations were also rife about the party considering fielding her from Tonk-Sawai Madhopur.

Just as the chances of her being fielded from Rajsamand strengthened, Diya veered the former part of Mewar dynasty. In an unexpected move, she, on March 30, visited the family of martyr Parvez Khataat, who was killed during a combat operation in Uri a day earlier. Khataat hailed from Shekhawas in Rajsamand.

Diya had joined the BJP in September 2013 and won the 2013 assembly polls from

Sawai Madhopur

. Her not contesting the assembly polls was believed to be a fall out of her reported differences with former chief minister Vasundhara Raje over a property dispute between the state government and the erstwhile royal family of Jaipur. The former MLA though always maintained she was not interested in the assembly polls.

“Assembly polls were not my choice. However, now, I am more prepared and had informed the party that I would be glad to take up whatever responsibility I am given as an elected representative or as a party worker. The decision, though, to field me is of the party high command and I am thankful for being given this opportunity,’’ she said while talking to TOI.

The statement she released after the announcement read, “I am happy that the national and state leaders of BJP have chosen me as a candidate from Rajsamand. I thank the leaders of the party for believing in me. I am contesting elections to meet the expectations of the people for the development of Rajsamand region.’’

Kumari will be the third from the erstwhile Jaipur family to contest Lok Sabha polls. Her grandmother and erstwhile Rajamata Gayatri Devi were three-time MP from Jaipur—1962, 67 and 71. While her father Bhawani Singh contested Lok Sabha polls in 1989 but lost to BJP candidate Girdhari Lal Bhargava.