Bengaluru: Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar, a member of the Mysuru royal lineage, is set to enter the realm of electoral politics, as the BJP nominates him to contest from the Mysore Lok Sabha constituency, displacing incumbent MP Pratap Simha.
Aged 31 and educated in the United States, Yaduveer assumed the ceremonial position of the head of the former Mysuru royal household on May 28, 2015, succeeding as the 27th in line of the Wadiyar dynasty.
Following the adoption by Pramoda Devi Wadiyar, the widow of Srikantadatta Narasimharaja Wadiyar, Yaduveer Gopal Raj Urs was renamed Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar due to the absence of direct descendants.
Yaduveer, known for his interests in music, particularly guitar and Saraswati Veena, pursued his undergraduate studies in Economics and English at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He is the grandson of Princess Gayatri Devi, the eldest daughter of the late Maharaja Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar.
Apart from his academic pursuits, Yaduveer also indulges in tennis and has a fondness for horse racing. His spouse, Trishika Kumari Wadiyar, belongs to the Dungarpur Royal Family of Rajasthan, with her father Harshavardhan Singh previously serving as a BJP Rajya Sabha MP.
The royal family has a history intertwined with politics. Yaduveer’s predecessor, Srikantadatta Narasimharaja Wadiyar, represented the Mysore Parliamentary constituency in four terms, albeit with affiliations to different political parties, primarily the Congress, and briefly, the BJP.
Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar, Srikantadatta’s father and the final Maharaja of Mysuru, held the position of Rajpramukh/Governor post-independence.
Given the enduring reverence for the royal family in the traditional Mysuru region of southern Karnataka, analysts anticipate a tempered response from political opponents, notably the Congress, towards Yaduveer’s candidacy.
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