The Hindu : National : Uma Bharti's return possible

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jan 03, 2006

National

National

Uma Bharti's return possible

Neena Vyas

She cannot and will not rejoin fake BJP, says supporter Many party leaders may oppose such a move

NEW DELHI: Will Rajnath Singh's entry as Bharatiya Janata Party president lead to the return of expelled former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Uma Bharti to the Bharatiya Janata Party?

Neither the supporters of the new party president nor those of Ms. Bharti ruled out that possibility. Mr. Singh said in response to a question that the BJP's parliamentary board had decided to expel Ms. Bharti. As for Mr. Bharti, her supporter Prahlad Patel said "she cannot and will not return to the nakli [fake] BJP."

Party leaders have said that even if Mr. Singh was willing to reopen the question of Ms. Bharti's expulsion, it would meet with stiff opposition from colleagues such as Venkaiah Naidu, Pramod Mahajan, Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj. Nothing was expected to happen in the near future.

Mr. Patel told the press here on Monday that Ms. Bharti's Ram Roti yatra through Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh was attracting good crowds. While in Madhya Pradesh the main issue she focussed on was roti or economic development, in U.P. the "people were anxious about the ideological vacuum," suggesting that `Ram' was still an issue.

Mr. Patel denied allegations that Ms. Bharti and her supporters had something to do with the tapes on the former BJP general secretary, Sanjay Joshi. "The Sanjay Joshi episode had more to do with the power politics being played out at the BJP's headquarters in Delhi, not Madhya Pradesh factional fights in the party," he said.

He indirectly attacked the former BJP president, L.K. Advani, when he pointed out that Ms. Bharti had spoken out against the double standards applied to party men on the issues of corruption and indiscipline.

He criticised the `two different stances' of the party in the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha on the issue of allegations against MPs having taken cash for asking questions in Parliament.

The attack was on Mr. Advani for not voting for their expulsion but walking out before the vote in the Lok Sabha expelling the MPs.

After Ms. Bharti completes her yatra on January 14 at Ayodhya, she plans to come to Delhi, Mr. Patel said.

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