Who is 32-year-old ‘king’ Yaduveer Wadiyar contesting for BJP from Mysuru?

Yaduveer’s name has been doing rounds for a while as speculations were rife about his ticket and the BJP now confirmed it.

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s list of candidates for Lok Sabha polls from Karnataka has many replacements, and one such is allotting a Mysuru-Kodagu ticket to Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar, the scion of erstwhile royal Mysuru family. Yaduveer’s name has been doing rounds for a while as speculations were rife about his ticket and the BJP now confirmed it.

Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar

Who is Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar?

32-year-old Yaduveer is the grandson of Jayaramachandra Wadiyar, who was the 25th and last ruling maharaja of Mysore. Promoda Devi Wadiyar who is the wife of Yaduveer’s uncle Srikanthdatta Wadiyar adopted Yaduveer and played a crucial role in his upbringing. Yaduveer did his schooling in Bengaluru’s Vidyanikethan school and later went to the University of Massachusetts in the USA for his higher education. He holds a degree in English literature and Economics. This is the first time for Yaduveer to contest in elections and BJP decided to field him from the crucial Mysuru region where the royal family holds a very good reputation.

Yaduveer’s uncle Srikanthdatta Wadiyar too contested from Mysuru earlier on a Congress ticket and won four times from the same Lok Sabha seat. However, he lost in 1991 when he contested there on a BJP ticket. He also lost in 2003 again on a Congress ticket. Meanwhile, Pratap Simha, the MP sitting in Mysuru-Kodagu's seat, could not retain his seat in this region. Simha, who was in the news when the Parliament security breach happened last year in New Delhi was hopeful about the retention of his seat as he was confident about the work he has done for his constituency. However, he said that he will lend his support to whoever contests from BJP from Mysuru-Kodagu seat.

After the list was announced, Simha said he called Yaduveer and congratulated him. “I extended my wishes to Yaduveer, who will be contesting from Mysuru-Kodagu. I will start campaigning for BJP in next two days,” he wrote in X.