Yashodhara Raje had been a minister in the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government

Yashodhara Raje had been a minister in the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government

Yashodhara Raje had been a minister in the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government

The decision of former Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia to quit the Congress on Tuesday is being received with glee in the BJP. Amid reports Jyotiraditya could join the BJP, his father's sister, Yashodhara Raje Scindia, has welcomed his move to cut ties with the Congress.

Jyotiraditya Scindia, the scion of the Gwalior royal family, is the grandson of Vijaya Raje Scindia, the rajmata (queen mother) of Gwalior. Vijaya Raje, who won the Guna Lok Sabha seat on a Congress ticket, switched to the Jana Sangh, the predecessor to the BJP, in 1967. She has been considered as one of the founder members of the BJP.

Her daughters, Yashodhara Raje Scindia and Vasundhara Raje Scindia, have been prominent BJP members. Vasundhara Raje has been a Union minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee era and two-time chief minister of Rajasthan, while Yashodhara Raje had been a minister in the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government in Madhya Pradesh.

Vijaya Raje's son, Madhavrao Scindia, the father of Jyotiraditya Scindia, started his political career in the Jan Sangh, but switched to the Congress in December 1979. The decision embittered ties between Madhavrao and his mother and sisters, even as he rose to become a minister in the Congress government in the 1990s.

On Tuesday, however, Yashodhara Raje welcomed the "bold move" by Jyotiraditya to leave the Congress.

She tweeted, "Rajmata's blood took the decision in the national interest; a new country will be formed; every distance is now removed."

Speaking to reporters, Yashodhara Raje described the move by Jyotiraditya Scindia as a ghar wapsi (homecoming) for him. Referring to Tuesday being Madhavrao's 75th birth anniversary, she said, “His son (Jyotiraditya) has joined the BJP on his father’s birth anniversary today, what better day it can be.”