Backed by a powerful section of Sangh ideologues, the rabble-rouser of the Ram Mandir movement has repositioned herself as the BJP's leading Mandalite, the Kalyan Singh of Madhya Pradesh and nemesis of the Brahmin-Bania combine of Kailash Joshi and Sunderlal Patwa. And thereby, she has created a new faction in the bitterly divided MP unit.

Unfazed by the hostility surrounding her as she attempts to storm Patwa's bastion, Bharati has decided to park herself in MP for the duration of the polls. Her ministry at the Centre-the Department of Youth Affairs and Sports -will just have to take care of itself.

Bharati's newfound clout in MP is evident from the sizeable chunk of party tickets she bagged for her supporters. BJP sources reveal that virtually every name on her wishlist has been accommodated including her controversial brother, Swami Prasad, who is embroiled in a number of criminal cases.

Party circles are reluctant to put a figure to her share but the BJP's switchover from mandir to Mandal in these polls is stamped all over the list of candidates. More than half the nominees this time are from the Other Backward Castes, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, sounding the death knell for the Brahmin-Bania lobby which dominated the party in MP since its inception.

The factionalism rampant in its MP unit has kept the BJP from projecting a would-be Chief Minister. Insiders aver, however, that after the polls, Bharati may emerge as the dark horse in a power struggle which they feel will redefine caste equations within the BJP in the State.

Bharati's political comeback is the surprise of these elections. Ever since the mandir issue faded away as a poll plank, she has been knocking around aimlessly, in search of a new identity to get back to centrestage. Her crusade onbehalf of the OBCs when the Women's Reservation Bill controversy was at its height earned her a black mark in party circles. As did her angry allegation on television of an upper caste bias in the BJP.

The last straw as far as she was concerned was the cold war between her and Murli Manohar Joshi in the Human Resource Development Ministry which had almost marginalised her. Matters came to a head this summer when after a prolonged tussle with her senior minister, Bharati flounced off in anger to Badrinath and vowed not to return. Her mentor, party general secretary Govindacharya, had to cajole her to come back.

Ironically, today, her Mandal politics have become her passport to success. Both Govindacharya and another influential general secretary, Narendra Modi, seem to have made it their mission to overhaul the BJP and give it a new caste profile. The forthcoming elections and the sagging popularity of Patwa and Joshi provided them an opportunity to experiment in MP and Bharati is their chosen catalyst forchange.

Significantly, Home Minister L K Advani is also believed to have chipped in to give Bharati her unexpected boost. According to party circles, he personally intervened with BJP president Kushabhau Thakre to persuade an irate Patwa to allow Bharati a toehold in his fiefdom. The compromise hammered out to placate Patwa was to let the best man (or woman) win. If the Banias outnumber the OBCs among the newly elected MLAs, Bharati will step aside for Patwa. But if the OBCs, SCs and STs garner the bigger share of seats, then the saffronclad sanyasin takes over.