The rise and rise of Diya Kumari

BJP has appointed Diya Kumari as one of many two deputy chief ministers in Rajasthan. Belonging to the erstwhile royal household, Kumari has come a good distance — from palace to politics. PTI

After a lot hypothesis and conjecture, the Bharatiya Janata Celebration (BJP) shocked every person on Tuesday (13 December) when it introduced Bhajan Lal Sharma, a first-time MLA, as its selection for Rajasthan chief minister. Concurrently, the get together additionally introduced that Diya Kumari and Premchand Bairwa could be the deputy chief ministers.

Amongst all of the names and bulletins, maybe, Kumari’s identify was the least stunning as she is a rising star within the state. Furthermore, her identify was additionally doing the rounds as potential chief ministerial candidate shortly after the BJP wrested energy from the Congress within the recently-concluded Meeting elections.

Chatting with reporters, Kumari instructed the media that the BJP authorities would work to make Rajasthan a developed state, and thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the get together excessive command for making her deputy chief minister.

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We take a more in-depth take a look at the rise of Diya Kumari – from palace to politics.

She’s royalty

Princess Diya Kumari, 52, is a member of the erstwhile royal household of Jaipur. She is the granddaughter of Man Singh II, the final ruling maharaja of the princely state of Jaipur, and the daughter of Sawai Bhawani Singh, who earned distinction within the 1971 Indo-Pakistan struggle as a lieutenant colonel and the commanding officer of the Para Commandos of the tenth Parachute Regiment.

She is a graduate in tremendous arts and design abilities and holds a diploma in these topics from London.

She can be related to a number of non-government organisations, together with the Eye Financial institution Society of Rajasthan, and Rays, an NGO working for HIV+ youngsters, of which she is the patron. She was additionally elected to function a member of the federal government’s Nationwide Tiger Conservation in 2019.

The mixture of belonging to royalty and but having a right down to earth persona has earned her the identify of “daughter of Jaipur” and the “princess who walks on the streets”. In actual fact, it’s this picture that has helped made her widespread within the state and widespread with the folks.

Rise in politics

Kumari made her foray into politics in 2013 and joined the BJP. Apparently, it was former Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje who was instrumental in Kumari’s entrance into politics. Kumari joined the BJP at a rally in her presence, then BJP president Rajnath Singh and present Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who on the time was the Gujarat CM.

In that very yr, she contested from the Sawai Madhopur Meeting constituency and was pitted in opposition to each the Congress’s Danish Abrar and veteran tribal chief Kirodi Lal Meena, who contested on a ticket of the Nationwide Individuals’s Celebration (NPP). Kumari defeated her skilled rivals to win Sawai Madhopur.

Later throughout the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, she contested from Rajsamand and was elected MP with one of many greatest victory margins of 5.51 lakh votes.

Within the 2023 Meeting elections, she gained the polls from the Vidhyadhar Nagar constituency after defeating Congress candidate Sitaram Agarwal.

Throughout her marketing campaign for the Meeting polls, the 52-year-old made a pitch for the surroundings, schooling, healthcare, and girls’s empowerment.

The second ‘Raje’

As Kumari makes strides in politics, many have stored evaluating her to get together veteran Vasundhara Raje.

Nevertheless, her relations with Raje are fraught with tensions and they are often dated again to 2016. It was then that Kumari and the erstwhile royal household of Jaipur sparred with the Raje-led state authorities after Jaipur Growth Authority (JDA) officers sealed the gates of the family-owned Rajmahal Palace resort throughout an anti-encroachment drive.

Photographs of the confrontation between Kumari and authorities officers throughout the sealing train made it to newspaper entrance pages and the incident drove a wedge between Raje and her.

In actual fact, earlier when requested how she would really feel if she was ignored for the chief minister’s put up resulting from her alleged battle with former CM Vasundhara Raje, she had responded by saying that she “didn’t need to touch upon such issues”.

“I don’t touch upon such issues. All of us have labored collectively. She was there too, I acquired her blessings too,” Kumari stated.

Notably, she has stored mum on the obvious strife with Raje and has by no means commented publicly on another state BJP chief. She has targeted on growing the significance inside the get together, discovering place within the get together’s state govt as a common secretary, addressing press conferences in opposition to the Congress authorities, and main protests.

And it appears that evidently her efforts have lastly borne fruit.

With inputs from businesses