Jaivardhan Singh and Sreejamya Singh campaigned door-to-door with cakes, sweets and ladoos
Congress leader Digvijay Singh's son Jaivardhan might feel it is a 'cakewalk' to win polls from his family bastion, but this did not deter his wife from joining him in the hectic campaign trail and that, too, on her birthday on Saturday.
Sreejamya, five years younger to her 32-year-old MLA husband, accompanied Jaivardhan at the hustings after offering prayers at the family Hanuman temple at their residence at the Raghogarh fort and then proceeded on a joint campaign trail while cutting cakes with locals and celebrating with them her birthday.
"I thought it would be better for me to ask her to accompany me on the campaign today rather than get hauled up for not being with her even on her birthday," Mr Jaivardhan quipped when asked about her first day at the hustings with him for the November 28 Madhya
Pradesh polls.
Jokes apart, he added, she has a great connect with the electorate in Raghogarh and she has already toured the area many times before, without me.
"The people of our constituency are like family... A family that I had met many times in the area since we got married in 2015. I have campaigned for him alone for a day or two for these polls.
"While men and women come to meet me with their problems at the 'quila' (the Singh family's fort residence) also, this is the first time we are going together to the villages," Ms Sreejamya told PTI.
Carrying her two-and-a-half year old son Sahasrajai Singh, the daughter-in-law of Congress leader and former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh, strikes an instant cord with the village women.
Asked as to how she sees her husband's work, Ms Sreejamya said that "he manages both home and political work well and I am sure the work he has done for the constituency will give us the favourable results."
As a mark of welcome and wishes on her birthday, villagers and party workers organised multiple cake cutting ceremonies along the campaign route.
The tour started with a party worker's house in this village as Ms Sreejamya cut a two-storey cake that had birthday good wishes written for her in the name she is popularly know as-- 'yuvraani sahiba' and 'hukum'.
The venue was decorated with balloons, ribbons and villagers from nearby hamlets were invited for the event with the band party playing 'dhols' in the background.
"Bless us... My husband with your love. You are our family and I am so happy to see this lovely gesture of ensuring a cake on my birthday.
"This is one of the best birthdays I ever had," Ms Sreejamya tells the organisers.
Wearing a red saree and slippers, she interacts with the women folk, seeking to know their problems, details about their families and children as she ensures that no elderly woman touches her feet.
"I am your daughter and daughter-in-law. Bless the child and the family," she tells the young and elderly who bow in reverence as they follow the age-old tradition of touching the feet of the royals.
Mr Jaivardhan also makes it a point that he introduces his wife to the village elders and people who are party loyalists.
"Shriju (the nick name Jaivardhan uses for his wife) meet them. They have been with our family since ages," Mr Jaivardhan, the sitting MLA from the area, said.
As the couple move ahead for their door-to-door campaign, more cakes, sweets and 'ladoos' followed.
The couple subsequently invited a few children along with their son to cut the cake and share sweets.
Mr Jaivardhan has inherited the Raghogarh assembly seat from his father Digvijay Singh and had first contested successfully in 2013.
The seat, under Guna district, has been with the Congress since 1977 with Singh senior being an MLA five times apart from his brother and other Congress candidates.
The BJP has pitted Bhupendra Singh against him who lost the 2003 polls against Congress candidate Mool Singh by a slender margin of 7,000 votes.