JAIPUR: A member of the erstwhile royal family and MP from Rajsamand Lok Sabha seat, from where she recently resigned, Diya Kumari has been appointed as the Deputy CM of Rajasthan. She is a member of the former royal family of Jaipur who secured her place in the Assembly by defeating Sitaram Agarwal of Congress with a record 71,368 votes.
Kumari has been twice MLA and once an MP. This time she won from Vidhyadhar Nagar with a margin of 71,368 votes. The 52-year-old BJP leader became an MLA for the first time in 2013 from Sawai Madhopur. In 2019, she was elected as MP from Rajsamand.
She is the daughter of erstwhile Jaipur Maharaja Sawai Bhawani Singh, who earned distinction in the Indo-Pakistan war of 1971 as a Lieutenant Colonel and commanding officer of the Para Commandos of the 10th Parachute Regiment. She is also associated with several non-government organisations, including the Eye Bank Society of Rajasthan, and Rays, an NGO working for HIV+ children, of which she is the patron.
Diya is a graduate in fine arts and design skills and holds a diploma in those subjects from London. She formally joined BJP on September 10, 2013. Then Gujarat CM Narendra Modi, former BJP chief Rajnath Singh, and ex-CM Vasundhara Raje had granted her membership in a rally in Jaipur. The BJP nominated her from Sawai Madhopur in 2019. She reached the assembly after winning the polls. In 2019, the BJP took a risk and fielded her from the Rajsamand Lok Sabha seat.