Udaipur witnessed a row in the erstwhile royal family today after the coronation of BJP MLA Vishvaraj Singh Mewar as the 77th Maharana of Mewar. A stand-off with his cousin Dr Lakshay Raj Singh Mewar followed at the gates of the historic city palace, after Mr Singh was refused entry into the palace, which is now run by a trust managed by his cousin and uncle Shreeji Arvind Singh Mewar. The row it sparked escalated as the day progressed. Post-10 pm, the MLA’s supporters started throwing stones and attempted to storm the palace gates. Others are retaliating from inside the palace. Hectic visuals from palace gates shows stones landing from both sides, Three people have been injured and the police are trying to control the mob. 

Reports say Vishvaraj Singh has been standing with his supporters at the spot for the last 5 hours. The district administration has now decided to intervene. 

Vishvaraj Singh — the BJP MLA from Rajsamand from where his wife Mahima Kumari is the sitting MP — was formally declared the heir to the Mewar dynasty at a traditional coronation ceremony in the historic Chittorgarh fort 12 days after the death of his father Mahendra Singh Mewar. 

The coronation ceremony, conducted by priests who performed pujas and did a havan, saw Vishwaraj’s raj tilak done by an erstwhile noble who slashed his finger on a sword and anointed him in blood. This is a tradition that goes back hundreds of years in the Mewar dynasty, which traces its lineage back to Bappa Rawal in the 8th Century. Its most famous royal was Rana Pratap, who fought the Mughals in the battle of Haldi Ghati. 

After the symbolic coronation, Mr Singh had decided to take the blessings from family deities — the Dhooni mata temple inside the city palace and the Ekling Shiv temple about 50 kilometres from Udaipur. But since both temples are run by the trust, he was denied entry into the city palace. The administration had tried to persuade the Museum Trust to allow not the entire procession, but a few erstwhile nobles to accompany Vishwaraj Singh into the palace for darshan.  

Anticipating trouble, the police had set up barricades and deployed additional personnel in the area around the city palace gates. But when Mr Singh was denied entry into the palace, his enraged supporters broke barricades and tried to get close to the city palace gates. 

“The situation that we see today is unfortunate,” Vishvaraj Singh told media persons. “I am grateful for your support. On one side is properties, but there are also traditions where we seek blessings. This is wrong as far as traditions and society norms are concerned,” he added. 

The new generation of Mewar royals have been involved in a legal dispute over palaces, temples and forts that are now run and managed by nine trusts. All these trusts are handled by the uncle and cousin of Vishvaraj Singh.

Early this morning, the Maharana Mewar Charitable Trust published in the local newspapers that they would not allow anyone to enter the trust premises as they anticipated that this could be done with an intention to trespass on and damage trust properties.  

The dispute goes back to 1984, when the former Maharana of Mewar Bhagwat Singhji made his younger son Arvind Singh the director of the trusts, effectively ousting the elder son Mahendra Singh from the royal properties. 

As the stand-off continues in Udaipur, this is a royal row that’s going to echo in the City of Lakes for some time. 

Devendra Fadnavis, seen as the front-runner in the race for the top job in Maharashtra, came to Delhi this evening, sparking anticipation about a meet with the Central leadership to resolve the Chief Ministership issue. But he doused expectation saying no meeting on the matter has been planned and he is in the national capital to attend the wedding of the daughter of Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla. 
Mr Fadnavis is expected to return to Mumbai later tonight, ahead of Union minister Amit Shah’s expected visit to the country’s financial capital on Tuesday.

Two days after the Maharashtra assembly election results were declared, there has been no announcement about the big question of who would be the next Chief Minister of the state. 

While Mr Fadnavis has been seen as the front-runner for the post, ally Shiv Sena is keen that its chief Eknath Shinde continues in the top job. Off the records, leaders say that he deserves the job since it is his government’s welfare projects that helped the ruling alliance reach a sweeping victory.

Shiv Sena spokesperson Naresh Mhaske cited the “Bihar model” to assert that Mr Shinde should continue as the chief minister. In Bihar, Nitish Kumar has continued as the Chief Minister despite the BJP’s better performance in the last assembly election.

“We feel Mr Shinde should be the Chief Minister, just like in Bihar where BJP did not look at the numbers but still made JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar the CM. Senior leaders of the Mahayuti (in Maharashtra) will ultimately take a decision,” he was quoted as saying by news agency Press Trust of India.

At the Sena MLAs’ meeting, slogans were raised in demand of Mr Shinde as the Chief Minister.

The Ajit Pawar-led NCP, sources said, may support Mr Fadnavis for the top post, tilting the scales in favour of the BJP. 

Since the results were declared, leaders of all three parties in the ruling alliance have said they would sit down together and take a call on the issue. Mr Fadnavis had even lightened the mood at a post-election press conference, saying they will consult all allies including Ramdas Athawale, the chief of Republican Party of India-Athawale which contested one seat under the BJP flag and lost. 

Led by Mr Fadnavis, the BJP won the highest ever 132 seats for the party, while the Shiv Sena faction led by Mr Shinde bagged 57 seats. Ajit Pawar’s faction of the Nationalist Congress Party won 41 seats, taking the ruling alliance Mahayuti score to a whopping 230 of the state’s 288 seats. 

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