FORMER Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh and a firebrand leader Uma Bharati rejoined the BJP in New Delhi on June 7. BJP president Shri Nitin Gadkari announced that she would now play a key role in the forthcoming Uttar Pradesh elections and she would be based in Lucknow. “This will strengthen the party and help in removing Mayawati’s goondaraj and prevent Mulayam Singh Yadav’s jungleraj from coming back to power,” said Shri Gadkari while outlining her role in the party. She has also been made in-charge of the Ganga purification project of the party.
In her brief speech, Uma Bharati conceded that it took her five years to realise that her belief in the BJP’s ideology is her real goal. “Like a sparrow which wants to get away from the ship but eventually realises that it is the ship which will take her to the shore, I felt that my ultimate future lies with the BJP, the party which I joined when I was eight years old when I came in touch with Rajmata Vijayeraje Scindia. I want to forget the period that I have been out of the party. I want to forget my past,” she said.
Uma Bharati was expelled for indiscipline and defying the BJP’s central leadership in December 2005. She had then formed her own outfit Bharatiya Janshakti Party. “After remaining with BJP for 16 years, I separated from it over certain unpleasant issues. I had joined BJP due to my commitment and left BJP due to my commitment,” she said. She thanked party leaders for accepting her back into the party fold.
Shri Gadkari said Umaji had expressed her desire to rejoin the party. “I consulted everyone who matters in the party before inviting her to rejoin the party and strengthen it,” he said. Welcoming the entry of Uma Bharati, Uttar Pradesh BJP president Surya Pratap Sahi said her experience and charisma would help the party intensify its agitation against Mayawati’s misrule in Uttar Pradesh.
