Rajmata Viyayaraje Scindia and Rajmata Gayatri Devi
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Born Lekha Divyeshwari in 1919, Rajmata Viyayaraje Scindia was from a branch of the Nepali royal family, which had been banished to Sagar, Madhya Pradesh in the late 1880s.

Rajmata first entered politics in 1957, running as a Congress party candidate in Madhya Pradesh.

In 1967 she resigned from the Congress party and joined the Jan Sangh due to ideological reasons.

In 1975, during Indira Gandhi's Emergency, Rajmata was imprisoned in Tihar Jail as a political prisoner.

Her son Madhavrao Scindia, also a Jan Sangh member of Parliament like his mother, however, fled to Nepal to stay with his sister Usha Raje.

Madhavrao apparently met Indira Gandhi's late son Sanjay Gandhi and displayed some lack of commitment to Jan Sangh principles. Rajmata was hurt by her son's behaviour and told him that he had done wrong. She also severed relations with her son.

Soon after the Emergency was lifted, Madhavrao returned and joined Indira's Congress party, while his mother remained in the Jan Sangh opposition.

While in Tihar jail, Rajmata chose to remain there rather than beg for clemency from Indira.

Rajmata came to the forefront of the Bharatiya Janata Party leadership in 1980 when she was made one of its vice-presidents. She played a key role in propagating the BJP's Ayodhya theme and was considered a hardliner.

Rajmata Scindia wrote two books during her lifetime -- an autobiography with Manohar Malgonkar called The Last Maharani of Gwalior, and Lok Path se Raj Path, in Hindi.

She died in 2001.

Rajmata Gayatri Devi entered politics in 1962 as a member of the Swatantra Party, and was jailed during the Emergency.

"I have my own ideas about freedom and believe that the state of Emergency, declared by Indira Gandhi in 1975, was a blot on India's democratic history," Gayatri Devi has said in an interview.

Gayatri Devi wasn't arrested immediately during the Emergency. She believed that if Indira Gandhi didn't send her to jail, it would be a slur on her.

She spent a good five months at Tihar jail before she was released for an operation.

Gayatri Devi had Rajmata Vijayaraje Scindia as a jail-mate at Tihar. She said though it was a great experience, the time seemed like eternity.

She has said the jail staff was almost apologetic about keeping her in confinement.

She recalled there was a lot of bonding among prisoners of the Emergency.

Every night the inmates from the male wards would shout the slogan: Desh ki billi, chhodo Dilli; jaao Italy, hotel chalao (India's cat, leave Delhi; go to Italy and run a hotel), she recalled.

During the festival of Holi, she had invited Rajmata to join in the celebrations in jail. They made a cloth doll that was supposed to resemble Indira. They set in on fire as Holika, the night before Holi.

After the Emergency, Gayatri Devi withdrew from active politics and concentrated on education and other sectors that she had been working on for the people of Jaipur.