Yashodhara Raje Scindia (born 19 June 1954) is an Indian politician who served as Minister of Sports and Youth Welfare, Technical Education, Skill Development and Employment of

Madhya Pradesh Madhya Pradesh (; ; ) is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal and the largest city is Indore, Indore. Other major cities includes Gwalior, Jabalpur, and Sagar, Madhya Pradesh, Sagar. Madhya Pradesh is the List of states and union te ...

under

Shivraj Singh Chouhan Shivraj Singh Chouhan (also spelt Chauhan; ; born 5 March 1959) is an Indian politician who is serving as the 32nd Minister of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare and the 23rd Minister of Rural Development since 11 June 2024. Chouhan served as th ...

. She is also the former Minister for Commerce, Industries and Employment in

Government of Madhya Pradesh The Government of Madhya Pradesh (abbreviated as MP) or Madhya Pradesh Government, is the supreme governing authority of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh and its 55 districts. It consists of an executive, led by the governor of Madhya Prade ...

. She is the youngest daughter of Jivajirao Scindia,

Maratha The Marathi people (; Marathi: , ''Marāṭhī lōk'') or Marathis (Marathi: मराठी, ''Marāṭhī'') are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group who are native to Maharashtra in western India. They natively speak Marathi, an Indo-A ...

Maharaja of Gwalior The Gwalior State was a List of Maratha dynasties and states, state within the Maratha Confederacy located in Central India. It was ruled by the Scindia, House of Scindia (anglicized from Sendrak), a Hindu Maratha Confederacy, Maratha dynasty. ...

and the Late Rajmata Vijayaraje Scindia of Gwalior. She was first elected from

Gwalior (Lok Sabha constituency) Gwalior is one of the 29 Lok Sabha constituencies in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh state. This constituency covers the entire Gwalior district and part of Shivpuri district. Vidhan Sabha segments Gwalior Lok Sabha constituency currently ...

to the 14th Lok Sabha via a by-poll in 2007 and again in 2009 General Election. She is a

Member of Legislative Assembly A Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) is a representative elected to sit in a legislative assembly. The term most commonly refers to members of the legislature of a federated state or an autonomous region, but is also used for several national ...

from

Shivpuri Shivpuri, previously known as Sipri, is a town and a municipality in Shivpuri district, located in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. It is in the Gwalior Division of northwest Madhya Pradesh and is the administrative headquarters o ...

constituency in

since 2013. She was educated at The Cathedral and John Connon School in

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

, then the Presentation Convent, Kodaikanal, and her final 2 years at the

Scindia Kanya Vidyalaya Scindia Kanya Vidyalaya is an all-girls boarding school in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, in India. It was established by the Rajmata of Gwalior State, Vijaya Raje Scindia. The first president of India, Dr Rajendra Prasad, in the presence of Maharaja ...

, Gwalior, a school founded by her mother.

Personal life and family

Her siblings are Vasundhra Raje Scindia former Chief Minister of

Rajasthan Rajasthan (; Literal translation, lit. 'Land of Kings') is a States and union territories of India, state in northwestern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the List of states and union territories of ...

, late

Madhavrao Scindia Madhavrao Jiwajirao Scindia (10 March 1945 – 30 September 2001) was an Indian politician and minister in the Government of India. He was a member of the Indian National Congress. He was viewed as a potential future prime ministerial candidat ...

, Padmavati Raje 'Akkasaheb' Burman and Usharaje Rana. Usha Raje Rana married

Pashupati Shumsher Jung Bahadur Rana Pashupati Shumsher Jung Bahadur Rana () is a politician from the Rana dynasty. He served in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Water Resources and Communication (1990–1994), Minister of Water Resources (1 ...

, grandson of

His Highness Highness (abbreviation HH, oral address Your Highness) is a formal style (manner of address), style used to address (in grammatical person, second person) or refer to (in grammatical person, third person) certain members of a reigning or formerly ...

Shree Shree Shree 3

Maharaja Maharaja (also spelled Maharajah or Maharaj; ; feminine: Maharani) is a royal title in Indian subcontinent, Indian subcontinent of Sanskrit origin. In modern India and Medieval India, medieval northern India, the title was equivalent to a pri ...

Sir ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as part ...

Mohan Shumsher Jung Bahadur Rana Field-Marshal Shree Maharaja Sir Mohan Shumsher Jung Bahadur Rana (), GCB, GCIE, GBE (23 December 1885 – 6 January 1967) was the prime minister and foreign minister of Nepal from 30 April 1948 until 12 November 1951. He was the last prime ...

Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...

is a politician in Nepal. Her brother was

who was born in 1945. He was an eminent politician belonging to the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party, or simply the Congress, is a political parties in India, political party in India with deep roots in most regions of India. Founded on 28 December 1885, it was the first mo ...

party as opposed to his mother and sisters who belong to the

Bhartiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; , ) is a political party in India and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. BJP emerged out from Syama Prasad Mukherjee's Bharatiya Jana Sangh. Since 2014, ...

. He was married to Madhavi Raje Scindia of Nepal and had two children Chitrangada Raje Scindia who married into the erstwhile royal family of Kashmir and

Jyotiraditya Madhavrao Scindia Jyotiraditya Madhavrao Scindia (born 1 January 1971; ) is an Indian politician who is the 43rd Union Minister of Communications and the 10th Minister of Development of North Eastern Region since 2024. He was a Member of Parliament in the R ...

the former Member of Parliament from the Congress Party of the Guna constituency in Madhya Pradesh. Madhav Rao died in a plane crash in 2001. Her other sister is Vasundhara Raje Scindia of Dholpur who is a member of the Bhartiya Janata Party. Vasundhara has one son

Dushyant Singh Dushyant Singh (born 11 September 1973; ) is an Indian politician and businessman. Singh is serving as a Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha, Member of Parliament in the Lok Sabha for the fifth time. The son of Vasundhara Raje House of Scindia, Sc ...

the Yuvraj of Dholpur who is currently the Member of Parliament from the

Jhalawar Jhalawar () is a city, municipal council and headquarter in Jhalawar district of the Indian state of Rajasthan. It is located in the southeastern part of the state. It was the capital of the former princely state of Jhalawar, and is the admi ...

in Rajasthan. Yashodhara moved to New Orleans, USA in 1977 after marrying Sidharth Bhansali a cardiologist. She has 3 children, Akshay a producer at MTV Desi in New York (26 yrs), Abhishek a student at the NYU Stern School of business (born in 1985) and Trishala a student at NYU (born in 1988). Whilst there, she was amongst other things, board member of the Delta Festival Ballet, an Advisory Board Member of the Contemporary Art Center, a Fellow of the New Orleans Museum of Art as well as single-handedly raised a quarter of a million dollars for the Audubon zoological society. The funds were dedicated to a permanent Indian exhibit space at the Audubon zoo (Voted the # 3 zoo in the whole of USA). After raising the funds she conceptualized and supervised the making of the entire exhibit which was made by local craftsmen in India and then transported in small pieces by sea and re-assembled at the site. She finalized her divorce and entered politics after returning to India in 1994.

Political life and career

She returned to India in 1994 and went into formal politics, contesting the Madhya Pradesh State Assembly Elections in 1998 as a member of the

and then being re-elected 5 years later once again, for a second term in 2003 in the State Assembly elections. She is an active member of her State Legislative Party. She served in Madhya Pradesh Government as a Cabinet Minister for Tourism, Sports & Youth Welfare. In October/November 2006 Yashodhara created a controversy of sorts when she got the BJP to issue a notice saying that she would be officially addressed as "Shrimant" which means your highness or your majesty. In by-elections to be held in early March 2007, she has been nominated as the party's candidate from Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh. On Sunday 11 March 2007 Yashodhara Raje Scindia of the BJP was declared elected to the Gwalior Lok Sabha seat. She defeated her nearest Congress rival Ashok Singh by over 35,000 votes. On 8 December 2013 she won Legislative Assembly elections in Shivpuri with 76,330 votes. Again, she won from Shivpuri Assembly constituency in 2018 with 24,282.

Ancestry

References

External links

Yashodhara Raje Scindia
Rediff - 28 February 1998

17 November 2003
Yashodhara wins Gwalior bypoll hands down
12 March 2007 * {{DEFAULTSORT:Scindia, Yashodhara Yashodhara Bharatiya Janata Party politicians from Madhya Pradesh 1954 births Living people India MPs 2004–2009 British emigrants to India India MPs 2009–2014 Madhya Pradesh MLAs 1998–2003 Madhya Pradesh MLAs 2003–2008 Lok Sabha members from Madhya Pradesh Madhya Pradesh MLAs 2013–2018 State cabinet ministers of Madhya Pradesh Indian female royalty People from Gwalior 21st-century Indian women politicians Madhya Pradesh MLAs 2018–2023 Women members of the Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly Women members of the Lok Sabha

Personal life and family

Political life and career

Ancestry

See also

References

External links