A flashback on Madhavrao Scindia vs his mother

As poll fever is gripping the country, a new book provides many election-related nuggets of the past like Madhavrao Scindia's panache while canvassing against his mother, Kanshi Ram asking for a rupee from his voters as pledge and NT Rama Rao's histrionics in broken Hindi.

During the campaigning for the 1989 Lok Sabha elections, Madhavrao waged a battle to prevent the Guna seat from going to his mother – senior BJP leader and matriarch of the Gwalior royal family, Vijayaraje Scindia.

The target of Vijayaraje's broadside was her son Madhavrao, the Congress heavyweight defending his parliamentary seat in adjacent Gwalior, says writer-journalist Bhaskar Roy in his political memoir, "Fifty Year Road".

"The widow of Maharaja Jivajirao Scindia’s visceral antagonism towards her only son was indeed intriguing," writes Roy.