Modi fights key state election

The Indian state of Rajasthan voted yesterday in an election that is a key test for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with a local princess representing his party facing a tough fight to stay in power. The vote in the western state famous for its palaces, forts and deserts, home to 47 million people, is one of five state elections before Modi runs for a second term in national polls in 2019.

Results from Rajasthan, as well as for Telangana, also voting on Friday, plus from Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram -- which have already cast ballots -- will be published on December 11. The most closely watched will be the central state of Madhya Pradesh, where 73 million people live. The contests are seen as a dry run for 2019, with Modi and his likely rival from the Congress party, Rahul Gandhi -- scion of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty -- both campaigning actively.

Vasundhara Raje, Rajasthan’s chief minister and a charismatic “Maharani” or female Maharaja representing Modi’s BJP, swept to power in a landslide in 2013. Rajasthan is one of India’s few regions where local royal families going back centuries -- and outlasting British rule -- have successfully transitioned to democratic politics since India’s independence in 1947.

Raje, 65, is the daughter of a former Maharaja who married an erstwhile ruler of another dynasty. Her main challenger in her constituency is Manvendra Singh, another blue blood from a family in western Rajasthan. Ayodhya Prasad Gaur, author of a book on one of the state’s leading royal families, said that the nobility’s popularity had to do with their “permanence” compared to ordinary politicians who just “come and go”.