Be it his mobile number or car registrations - 1953 featured in it all. "It's also a good way of writing the hidden number 9. As car's registration can't be more than four numbers, I have them as 1953, while my preference would have been 20021953," he had said.
Eager to enter politics, when he turned 25 years, was caught in a dilemma on which faction of Congress to support in Karnataka. The Congress in Karnataka had split with former CM D Devaraj Urs parting company with AICC chief Indira Gandhi.
Wadiyar was caught between Urs, who he felt had championed the cause of backward classes and former CM R Gundu Rao, who was heading the group owing allegiance to Gandhi. Both wanted him to contest the Mysore Lok Sabha seat in 1980. Though he favoured Urs, Wadiyar felt the former CM would not have come up politically without Gandhi's support. He remained neutral in that election.
In 1984, the Lok Sabha elections that followed Gandhi's assassination, Wadiyar was personally picked by former PM Rajiv Gandhi and given the ticket to contest the Mysore Lok Sabha seat. He won.
It was a unique experience for the Mysore Lok Sabha voters in 1984 with the Mysore Maharaja coming to their doorsteps to seek votes. Five years later, he retained the seat on a Congress ticket.
A Congressman at heart as the Nehru family had always been close to Mysore's royal family, Wadiyar's political aberration was in 1991, when denied the ticket for the third time, he crossed over to the BJP. He lost the parliamentary seat to Urs daughter Chandraprabha Urs, who was the Congress candidate.
Wadiyar retraced his steps to the Congress in the 1996 Lok Sabha elections, which he won followed by in 1999. In the last couple of years, he was wooed by all parties in Karnataka offering him a ticket to contest. He remained in the Congress, but kept himself aloof.
A few years ago, Wadiyar went in for a minor change in the way his name was spelt. He added an extra 'a' and clubbed the last name -- Srikantadatta Narasimharaajawadiyar. "There's nothing new in my name except for an additional 'a' in raja that was used in most of my ancestors' names when written in Sanskrit, Kannada, Hindi etc. They used their full name while signing. I find my name is longer than many others in the past and is spelt differently; be it in my passport, credit cards, khata or tax. It's only a rectification," Wadiyar had told TOI.
via Top Stories - Google News http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNH3Hji5_9Gkb4PTi8QKmqrA4va_Eg&url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bangalore/Wadiyar-remained-a-Congressman-till-his-last-breath/articleshow/27194781.cms
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