Despite being the seat of the kingdom, Gwalior has not really been charitable to the Scindias in the last few elections. Madhavrao had shifted to the safer seat of Guna in 1999 because the year before his margin was down to 26,279.

The voters insist that they don’t vote only for the surname and cite development works in the constituency. They judge the Scindias by a simple yardstick, “They will never indulge in corruption because they have so much money.”

Rajmata Vijayaraje Scindia, the political fountainhead of the family won her first election way back in 1957. Since then Scindias have won from Guna and Gwalior, no matter whether they fought as Independents, floated regional parties, or chose either the BJP or Congress.

The only exception was when Vasundhara Raje lost in Bhind as BJP candidate in 1984. The Congress had won more than 400 seats in that election held after the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. In the same election, Madhavrao had defeated Atal Behari Vajpayee in Gwalior by a margin of more than 1.75 lakh votes. The Rajmata’s only defeat had come in an election she contested in Rae Bareli against Indira Gandhi.