Yashodhara Raje Scindia

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Yashodhara Raje Scindia of Gwalior (born London, 19 June 1954) is the youngest daughter of the Late Jivajirao Scindia, Maharaja of Gwalior, and the Late Rajmata Vijayaraje Scindia[1] of Gwalior.

She educated at the Cathedral and John Connon School in Bombay, then the Presentation Convent, Kodaikanal, and her final 2 years at the Scindia Kanya Vidyalaya Gwalior,[2], a school founded by her mother.[3]

[edit] Personal life and family

Her siblings are the Late Maharani Padma Raje Scindia who was born in 1942 and married the late HH Maharaja Kirit Kishore Deb Burman of Tripura.[4], she died in 1969. Her second eldest sister is Maharajkumari Usha Raje Scindia who was born in October 1943 and in 1967 married Shri Pashupati Shumsher Jung Bahadur Rana of Nepal and had two daughters the somewhat infamous Devyani Rana and Urvashi Rana Khemka.[5].

Her brother is the Late HH Maharaja Madhav Rao Scindia[6]who was born in 1945. He was an eminent politician belonging to the Indian National Congress Party [7]as opposed to his mother and sisters who belong to the Bhartiya Janata Party.[8]. He was married to Madhavi Raje Scindia of Nepal and had two children Yuvrani Chitrangada Raje Scindia who is married into the royal family of Kashmir.[9] and HH Maharaja Jyotiraditya Scindia the current Member of Parliament from the Congress Party of the Guna constituency in Madhya Pradesh. Madhav Rao died in a plane crash in 2001. [10] Her other sister is HH Maharani Vasundhara Raje Scindia of Dholpur who is currently the Chief Minister of Rajasthan and is a member of the Bhartiya Janata Party. She has one son Dushyant who is currently the Member of Parliament from the Jhalawar constituency in Rajasthan. [11][12]

Yashodhara moved to New Orleans, USA in 1977 after marrying Dr. Sidharth Bhansali a cardiologist. She has 3 children, Akshay a producer at MTV Desi in New York[13] (26 yrs), Abhishek a student at the NYU Stern School of business (born in 1985) and Trishala a student at NYU (born in 1988). Whilst there, she was amongst other things, board member of the Delta Festival Ballet, an Advisory Board Member of the Contemporary Art Center, a Fellow of the New Orleans Museum of Art[14]as well as single handedly raised a quarter of a million dollars for the Audubon zoological society.[15] The funds were dedicated to a permanent Indian exhibit space at the Audubon zoo (Voted the # 3 zoo in the whole of USA). After raising the funds she conceptualized and supervised the making of the entire exhibit which was made by local craftsmen in India and then transported in small pieces by sea and re-assembled at the site.[16]

[edit] Political life and career

She returned to India in 1994 and went into formal politics, contesting the Madhya Pradesh State Assembly Elections in 1998 as a member of the Bhartiya Janata Party and then being re-elected 5 years later once again, for a second term in 2003 in the State Assembly elections. She is an active member of her State Legislative Party. She served in Madhya Pradesh Government as a Cabinet Minister for Tourism, Sports & Youth Welfare.[17] In October/November 2006 Yashodhara created a controversy of sorts when she got the BJP to issue a notice saying that she would be officially addressed as "Shrimant" which means your highness or your majesty.[18]

In bye-elections to be held in early March 2007, she has been nominated as the party's candidate from Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh. On Sunday March 11, 2007 Yashodhara Raje Scindia of the BJP was declared elected to the Gwalior Lok Sabha seat. She defeated her nearest Congress rival Ashok Singh by over 35,000 votes.