A 'MAHARAJA' SEEKS MAJORITY

A WADIYAR RIDES AGAIN-THE BJP HOPES TO MILK REVERENCE FOR OLD ROYALTY, EVEN AS YADUVEER SEEKS THE COMMON TOUCH. BUT THIS IS ALSO SIDDA'S HOMETOWN

- Ajay Sukumaran

IN the Swachh Survekshan 2023-an annual cleanliness survey that's been conducted by the Union ministry of housing and urban affairs since 2016-Mysuru was ranked in 23rd position. The slot is quite a tumble for Karnataka's 'City of Palaces', which had been ajudged the cleanest in the country in the survey's inaugural edition and has since been consistently among the top eight cities. It's only logical to assume that the city would be eager to regain lost ground and, leading by example, is the titular head of the over-600-year-old erstwhile royal family of Mysuru, Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar. On April 15, a day after a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) mega rally headlined by Prime Minister Narendra Modi was convened on the grounds of the Maharaja College in the city, the 32-year-old scion of the erstwhile royal family was seen at the venue, helping civic workers clean up the place. A graduate from the University of Massachusetts, he was anointed the 27th custodian of the Wadiyars in May 2015. For Yaduveer, however, the cleanliness drive could mean more than an effort to restore Mysuru's lost sanitary shine. It is being seen as an attempt by the titular royal to prove wrong detractors who paint the 'Maharaja' in colours of inaccessible elitism since he "stays in a palace". As the BJP candidate for the Mysuru-Kodagu Lok Sabha constituency in the ongoing general election, it is important fo