Royals roll up to Jhalawar PRAKASH BHANDARI TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ WEDNESDAY, MARCH 31, 2004 09:25:18 AM ] JHALAWAR: One of the most backward constituencies of Rajasthan, Jhalawar, has remained loyal to royals for long. Before Independence it was ruled by Jhalas and after that one of its rulers Raja Harishchandra Singh represented it as a Congress MP and also became a minister. Following a rift with the then strong Congress leader from this desert state, Late Mohan Lal Sukhadia, he left Congress and joined now defunct Bharatiya Janata Dal. After Harishchandra's death, the Jhalawar rulers kept themselves away from politics. Jhalawar is a bastion of the green and saffron and till now the Congress could win this Lok Sabha constituency only thrice. The erstwhile Jan Sangh won it twice, Bharatiya Lok Dal once, Janata Party once and BJP on five occasions. As the former rulers of Jhalawar kept themselves away from electoral fray, it enabled scions of other royal families to contest from this constituency which has a large number of Gujjars, Dhakar and Sondhia Rajput communities wielding political influence. The scion of the Kota royal family Brajraj Singh won the Jhalawar seat as a Congress candidate in 1962 but later he deserted the Congress and won twice in 1967 and 1971 as a Jana Sangh candidate. In the 1977 Janata Party wave he lost the seat to Chaturbhuj. Chaturbhuj retained the seat in 1980 despite a Congress wave. In 1984, a scion of the Kota royal family Jujhar Singh wrested the seat for Congress. This was the last time Congress won the seat. Since 1989 the seat had been won by a "rank outsider" Vasundhara Raje on five times in a row. Now her son, Raj Kumar Dushyant Singh, is the BJP candidate against Congress' Sanjay Gujjar. Mitha Lal Meena, a resident of Manohar Thana near Jhalawar, says it has been the misfortune of Jhalawar that the former rulers of other states have ruled here while the local royals have confined themselves to the forewalls of the palace. Inderjit Singh, heir of the Jhalawar ruling family, was a Doon school friend of Rajiv Gandhi, but has distanced himself from politics and has never favoured any party or candidate. He makes his living by opium farming. Dushyant Singh, 31, has the backing of an army of dedicated BJP workers who supported his mother for the last 15 years and he starts as favourite as the local people too are happy he is state's chief minister Vasundhara Raje's son. But castewise Dushyant faces a tough fight against his Gujjar rival ______________________________________________________ Dynasty boot on BJP foot OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT Raje New Delhi, March 23: The BJP, too, appears to have embraced dynastic politics soon after blasting the Congress for promoting it. The ruling party�s fourth list of 36 candidates for the general elections released today contains at least two relatives of senior leaders. Dushyant Singh, son of Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje, has been fielded from his mother's five-time former parliamentary constituency of Jhalawar. Manvendra Singh, son of finance minister Jaswant Singh, has been fielded from Barmer. He had lost the contest there in 1999. Asked why the BJP was promoting dynasty after criticising the Congress for it, general secretary Pramod Mahajan said �this is no dynasty�. There was no objection to relatives of political leaders contesting elections, he said, only to the inexperienced being imposed on the electoral fray. Dushyant, he said, has been working for the BJP for the last 10 years. �And he has not returned from abroad,� Mahajan added, in a hint that was perhaps directed at Congress� Rahul Gandhi. The latest list also names new entrant Laxman Singh, the brother of former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Digvijay Singh, as the candidate from Rajgargh and former BJP state chief Kailash Joshi from Bhopal. Asked how the BJP would tackle local leaders� opposition to Laxman�s nomination, Mahajan said there were �some differences� but �we will overcome it�. Another new entrant, Shubhangini Devi Gaekwad of the former Baroda royal family, has been fielded from Kheda in Gujarat. Rajendra Sharma has been pitted against the Congress� Begum Noor Bano and the Samajwadi Party�s Jayaprada in Rampur, Uttar Pradesh. The state�s speaker, Kesrinath Tripathi, will fight from Machlipur, a predominantly Brahmin constituency. Dharmendra, actor and husband of the BJP�s Rajya Sabha MP Hema Malini, may be fielded from Bikaner in Rajasthan, party sources said. The BJP fielded Anwar-ul Haq from Sheohar but did not name the nominee for the disputed Muzaffarpur, also in Bihar. Former Jharkhand chief minister Babulal Marandi will fight from Koderma. The number of BJP candidates decided so far has touched 324. __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Finance Tax Center - File online. File on time. http://taxes.yahoo.com/filing.html