LS elections: Majority of royal family candidates register big victories

Descendants of the royal families, who contested the 2024 Lok Sabha elections on BJP tickets, performed fairly well on Tuesday with a majority of them leading with a huge margin on their respective seats, according to the Election Commission data.

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), defeated the Congress' Rao Yadvendra Singh by 5,40,929 votes in the Guna parliamentary constituency in Madhya Pradesh.

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

The BJP made a clean sweep in Madhya Pradesh by securing decent vote margins on all 29 seats.

In Rajasthan, Dushyant Singh, Prince of Dholpur state, who has been elected four times in the past, won from the Jhalawar-Baran seat by a margin of 3,70,989 votes against his rival Urmila Jain of the Congress.

Another royal candidate from the desert state, Mahima Kumari Mewar, the wife of Vishvaraj Singh Mewar who is a descendant of Maharana Pratap, declared winner from the Rajsamand Lok Sabha seat. She had an edge of 3,92,223 votes over her nearest rival Dr Damodar Gurjar of the Congress.

In Rajasthan, the BJP won 14 seats out of total 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, was a BJP candidate for the Mysuru Lok Sabha seat.

Yaduveer got 7,95,503 votes and declared winner against Congress' candidate M Lakshmana by a margin of 1,39,262 votes.

The BJP won 17 seats out of 28 parliamentary constituencies while the Congress bagged nine seats in Karnataka.

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, secured 5,44,303 against her nearest rival Lambodar Nial of Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and emerged as a winner by a margin of 1,33,813 votes.

The BJP has put up a significant show in Odisha as its candidates made an impressive performance 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, defeated her nearest rival Rajendra Reang of the Communist Party of India (CPI) by a margin of 4,86,819 votes in Tripura East seat.

Tripura has two parliamentary constituencies and the BJP won both of them.

Among the losers of the royal challengers of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections is Vikramaditya Singh, who contested on the Congress ticket from the Mandi Lok Sabha seat in Himachal Pradesh.

Singh, the heir of the Rampur royal family and son of late Virbhadra Singh, a six-time chief minister of Himachal Pradesh, lost to actress-turned-politician Kangna Ranaut of the BJP by 74,755 votes. Ranaut got 5,37,022 votes, while Singh received 4,62,267.

Another royal candidate, who faced defeat is Rajmata Amrita Roy from the Krishnanagar seat in West Bengal.

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

She lost to Trinamool Congress' (TMC) Mahua Moitra by a margin of 56,705 votes. Moitra was trailing initially but later recovered and secured 6,28,789 votes.

In Punjab, BJP candidate 79-year-old Preneet Kaur, the wife of former chief minister Amarinder Singh (the scion of the erstwhile Patiala royal family) was a distant third with 2,88,998 votes in Patiala.

Kaur was locked in a four-corner electoral battle in Patiala, widely considered to be a Congress bastion.

Dharamvira Gandhi from the Congress won this seat with 3,05,616 votes.