Rajmata was once wooed by Congress

JAIPUR. Rajamata Gayatri Devi, who was one of the most glamorous woman in the post-Independence politics and who founded the now- defunct Swatantra Party in the state, was once wooed to join Congress by the then chief minister Mohan Lal Sukhadia who ruled the state between 1964 and 1971.
Her husband Maharaja Sawai Man Singh who was then rajpramukh of the state, a position equivalent to the governor.He was hurt when he was removed as rajpramukh in 1956 and Saradar Gurumukh Nihal Singh made the governor. The position of Raj Pramukh was abolished.
Hurt by this treatment, the Maharaja wanted to launch a party that could prove to be a strong opposition to the Congress. Both Maharaja and Gayatri Devi were aware of the rampant corruption in the state government functioning. All this irked the Maharaja and he made written complaints about it to the then Prime Minister.
The Rajmata in her biography noted that Sukhadia first approached the Maharaja with a request to join the Congress. But the Maharaja told him he should speak to Gayatri Devi. When Sukhadia did so she was surprised but she understood that Sukhadia must have spoken to the Maharaja, who in turn asked him to speak to her. Sukhadia even offered to give her the Congress ticket to contest the 1957 Lok Sabha election.
The Maharaja and Gayatri Devi had long discussion on the issue. They found the Congress to be full of people who were incapable of serving society. Soon it became a faction-ridden party and a few powerful people had turned it into their own coterie. The Maharaja was particularly sore that even after Independence there was no development in the state.
Sukhadia was perturbed by the complaints that the Maharaja used to write to Nehru about the maladministration and the decaying of Jaipur. He made frantic efforts to persuade Gayatri Devi joins politics. But one day, after she decided to join C Rajagopalachari's Swatantra Party in 1960, a rumour was pread that she would join Congress.
She contested the 1962 ellection for Lok Sabha and won by a record margin. In 1965 during a meeting with Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, Gayatri Devi was again asked to join Congress. This was the time when, despite the fact that her husband was being made ambassador to Spain, she struck to her principles and decided not to join the party. In 1967 the Swatantra party joined hands with Jan Sangh that was led by Bhairon Singh Shekhawat. The alliance won a large number of seats in the 1967 election. In the assembly election Gayatri Devi lost to Damodar Lal Vyas, but won the Lok sabha election.
Swatantra Party and Jan Sangh along with some Independents tried to form a government and this resulted in police firing in Jaipur when the governor denied them the opportunity. In 1967, she made a determined effort to form government in the state, but Sukhadia's cunning manoeuvring and organising large-scale defections prevented formation of a non-Congress government in the state.