BeyondHeadlines Staff Reporter
New Delhi: Conflicts are now over, Uma Bharti has come back to the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) today.
In a press conference organised today, BJP President Nitin Gadkari announced that she had been reintroduced in the party and would be given the responsibility to help revive the BJP in Uttar Pradesh ahead of the state’s elections next year. Gadkari was sitting with the controversial sanyasin in the press conference.
Bharti was expelled for indiscipline and for defying the BJP’s central leadership in December 2005. She then launched her own party namely the Bharatiya Janshakti Party, which had virtually no impact on voters.
Bharti was upset about being removed as Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh and made repeated attempts to challenge the authority of Shivraj Singh Chouhan who was appointed to head the state government at the end of 2005.
She has also served as a union minister in the NDA government.
Earlier this month, BJP President Nitin Gadkari had confirmed that the party was discussing whether to allow Ms Bharti to return to its fold. Veteran leader LK Advani who was targeted publically by Ms Bharti at the time of her expulsion – has been keen on allowing Ms Bharti to front the campaign in UP.
Ms Bharti was a key face of the BJP’s Ram Mandir movement in Ayodhya – she was present when the Babri Mosque was demolished on December 6, 1992. Recent court judgements on whether the land where the mosque stood belonged to Hindus or Muslims in the area have revived interest in and debate on the Ayodhya case – one of India’s most complex and challenging issues.
The party wants to capitalize on the fact that she’s an OBC (Other Backward Castes) leader.
