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Royal family backs Congress marking a new phase

Sunny Sebastian

Gaj Singh, the former ruler of Jodhpur, has joined hands with Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot in a new alignment

Chandresh Kumari, elder sister of Gaj Singh, is party’s Jodhpur candidate
She has returned to the desert from Himachal where she is active in Congress politics

JODHPUR: The old rivals have joined together to rewrite Marwar’s post-Independence political history. Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, who hails from Jodhpur, and Gaj Singh, the former ruler of Jodhpur whom people reverently refer to as ‘Bapji’, have joined hands in an unprecedented political alignment which would, many people think, help the Congress to re-establish itself in the western Rajasthan. Take the risk of travelling through the sun-baked villages of Jodhpur and Jaisalmer, where heat and dust reign supreme in this mid-summer period, you will meet plenty of villagers, well into their sixties, who may be voting for the Congress first time in their lives.

The reason for the transformation: The daughter of Marwar, Chandresh Kumari, is fighting elections from the Jodhpur Lok Sabha seat. This is for the first time after over three decades the former Jodhpur royal family has ventured into elections in their home terrain. Ms. Chandresh Kumari, elder sister of Mr. Gaj Singh, has returned to the desert from the mountains of the Himachal Pradesh where she had been active in Congress politics for the past three decades. Now the former royal family of Jodhpur, always identified in the past with the Bharatiya Janata Party for some reason or the other, is out in the open extending support for the daughter, married to former ruler of Kangra Lambagraon, Aditya Dev Chand.

Mr. Gaj Singh, who never before had any truck with the Congress, went out on Friday last for the first time in Jaisalmer districts including Pokhran for seeking votes for ‘Baijilal’, as she is reverentially called by him and others in the royalty circles. On Sunday, again on a mass contact programme, Mr. Singh addressed three public meetings in support of the Congress candidate in Shergarh tehsil. Of course there were no posters of Congress president Sonia Gandhi or Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the venue.

“This is his personal initiative. There is no party here,” one of his close associates explained. But if the former ruler does not talk about the Congress indirectly he does it in a subtle way by mentioning that Bajilal’s election would connect Jodhpur, Jaipur and Delhi. The villagers understand what he is talking about in chaste Marwari. Jodhpur is “his highness” (Mr. Gaj Singh), Jaipur is Ashok Gehlot and Delhi is Sonia Gandhi. It is with the blessings of the Congress first family that Chandresh Kumari has decided to sweat it out this summer in the desert. Those who are in the know understand the masterstroke of Mr.Gehlot, who invited her to contest from the seat many times represented by him.

“She is the right candidate. She has the experience. She has access to Delhi, to Ashokji and she has a concern for your well being," Mr. Gaj Singh tells the captive crowds of Rajputs and “subordinate castes” who always believe ‘Bapji’ is the final word. Asked about how he is adjusting to his new role, Mr. Singh said he had never been a political person. “I am telling people to vote for my sister who is a competent person. It is the Congress which has given this recognition to the Jodhpur family for the first time.” Acknowledging the significance of coming together of the Jodhpur royalty and Mr. Gehlot he quips, “I think this convergence helps Marwar”.

The union has a tough task ahead considering that the sitting BJP MP, Jaswant Singh Vishnoi, is a commoner much loved by the locals.

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