India's ace marksman Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore will join BJP alongside the Jaipur princess Diya Kumari today. India's ace marksman Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore will join BJP alongside the Jaipur princess Diya Kumari today.

The 2004 Olympic medallist Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore(43) and Jaipur princess Diya Kumari(42) are all set to join the BJP today. The two will be inducted to the party at Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's rally in Jaipur, Vasundhara Raje(state BJP president) and former Rajasthan CM told India Today.



BJP president Rajnath Singh will also address the rally. Rathore will be projected as a youth icon and is expected to have considerable impact in consolidating Rajput votes in Rajasthan which is going to polls in December. The Rajput votes have been shifting away from the BJP as Congress has been fielding Rajput candidates, including some with royal background.



Diya Kumari , the only child of late Bhawani Singh, last maharaja of Jaipur, also has an influence over Rajputs around Jaipur. Bhawani Singh contested the Lok Sabha election from Jaipur on Congress ticket in 1989, but lost to BJP's veteran leader Girdhari Lal Bhargava. After Bhargava's death, BJP lost the Jaipur seat in 2008.



Both Rathore and Diya may be offered tickets either in Assembly elections or Lok Sabha polls scheduled next year. Rathore hails from Bikaner but his father has settled down in Jaipur. BL Chaudhary, former VC of Mohanlal Sukhadia University, Udaipur too will join the BJP today.