The BJP is pitting Vasundhara Raje Scindia as its chief ministerial candidate against Ashok Gehlot. The former Maharani of Dholpur, Vasundhara Raje, has been holding the Jhalawar Lok Sabha seat since 1989. Born on March 8,1953 in Mumbai, daughter of veteran BJP leader, the former Rajmata of Gwalior, Mrs. Vijay Raje Scindia, Vasundhara Raje entered the poll arena in 1984 when she unsuccessfully contested the Bhind parliamentary seat of Madhya Pradesh as BJP nominee.
She shifted her electoral battlefield to Rajasthan the very next year to contest from the Dholpur Assembly constituency, the native place of her husband, and was declared elected.
In 1998, Vasundhara Raje was made the Union Minister of State for External Affairs in the Vajpayee government that lasted 13 days before being re-elected to the 13th Lok Sabha in 1999. She was made the Union Minister of State for Small Scale Industries.
It`s a direct battle between Scindia`s urbane charm and Gehlot`s no-nonsense image. Where Scindia`s "outsider" status (she does not belong to the state) can go against her, people`s disenchantment with the Congress government can have a debilitating affect on Gehlot`s electoral prospects. People might lap up all that "Rani Sahbia", as Vasundhara Raje is referred to, might have to say. But translating it into votes is a different ballgame altogether because she lacks any concrete issues to target the incumbent government. What BJP would be hoping to work in their favour is her charisma and the inner-party factionalism within the state unit of Congress.