With eye on UP,BJP takes back Uma Bharati

It is,however,understood that Advani set the homecoming file in motion for this firebrand-yet-unpredictable leader. Attempts are on to woo back other prodigals too,like Sanjay Bhai Joshi,said party sources.

Uma Bharati,who commands a base in the border of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh – particularly in the Bundelkhand,Jhansi and Banda areas – has been told by the party to bolster its prospects in that region.

This region is also close to Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi’s heart.

“She will help the party’s growth in Uttar Pradesh. She is in charge of the party’s Uttar Pradesh affairs,” said BJP President Nitin Gadkari,who announced Uma Bharati’s return today.

“The decision to reinduct her into the party was taken with consensus… BJP will get new energy in Uttar Pradesh with Uma,” Gadkari added.

Expressing happiness over her homecoming,Bharati said she was feeling like the proverbial bird of the ship,who leaves it only to come back again.

“Out of the party for six years,I have realised that only BJP is my anchor and destination… In these six years I learnt that if one has to serve the nation and keep ideological commitments,there is no option other than the BJP. I want to forget the last five years I was out of BJP,” Bharati said.

“After remaining with BJP for 16 years,I separated from it over certain unpleasant issues. I had joined BJP due to commitment and left BJP due to commitment,” Bharati said.

She later realised there was no other option than the BJP to give the country a plan and preserve the idealogical commitment,she said.

Bharati said her priority will be to take Uttar Pradesh from Ram Mandir to ‘Ram Rajya’ as Uttar Pradesh is a state of “Ram and Roti” and “Mandal and Kamandal”.

She thanked party leaders for “accepting” her back into the party fold.

Welcoming the former Madhya Pradesh chief minister back into the party,Gadkari said she had expressed her desire to work for the party to strengthen the ideology in which she has “unflinching” faith.

Asked whether leaders from Madhya Pradesh — including Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan,who were opposing her reinduction — were happy with the decision,Gadkari said he has consulted all leaders from the state and there is no difference in the party on the issue.

He said there is no bar for her from travelling across the country but her special attention will be on Uttar Pradesh as it is going to polls and on the ongoing Ganga Abhiyan.

Gadkari said the entry of Bharti into the party fold is going to strengthen the ideology and organisation of BJP.

Uma Bharati’s troubles started in August 2004 when she had to resign as chief minister of Madhya Pradesh after an arrest warrant was issued against her for her ‘role’ in the 1994 Hubli riots. She was temporarily suspended from the BJP in 2004 but was made its national executive in 2005 under RSS pressure,sources said.

In the same year,she was censured because she revolted against the appointment of Shivraj Singh Chouhan as MP Chief Minister.

In December 2005,the 52-year-old Bharti was expelled for indiscipline and for defying the BJP’s central leadership after she objected to L K Advani’s praise of Muhammad Ali Jinnah.

She subsequently floated the Bharatiya Janshakti Party but failed to win either an Assembly or a Lok Sabha seat.