Bhopal, (Samajweekly) Fire-brand Hindutva leader and former MP Chief Minister Uma Bharti has expressed her disappointment for not being invited for the ‘Jan Ashirwad Yatra’, flagged off by BJP President J. P. Nadda in the state on Sunday.
She reminded that the BJP had managed to defeat the Congress under her leadership in 2003 and since then the party has been in power (except for 15 months of the Kamal Nath-led Congress government).
“It may be that BJP leaders would feel nervous because of my presence.If I would the there, then entire public attention will be on me,” Bharti said without taking name of any party leader.
About Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, Bharti said she treated him like her nephew.
“I love him (Scindia) as my nephew, but at least I was worthy of being invited to the yatra launch, even though I wouldn’t have gone there,” she said.
However, Bharti also made it clear that she will continue to campaign for the BJP and solicit votes for the party in the coming polls.
Meanwhile, the Congress took this opportunity to attack the ruling BJP, alleging that the saffron party has always “insulted” its senior leaders.
“BJP has sidelined former Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani and forced (former Union Minister) Murli Manohar Joshi to retire,” Congress leader Randeep Surjewala, who is in-charge of Madhya Pradesh, said during an interaction with the press in Bhopal on Sunday.
Bharti had ended the long reign of Digvijaya Singh led Congress government in Madhya Pradesh in 2003. But in 2005, she was expelled from the party for indiscipline and taken back only in 2011. In 2013, appointed one of the thirteen vice-presidents to navigate the party through the Lok Sabha elections, she had shot down party colleague Yashwant Sinha’s idea that Narendra Modi be declared the NDA’s prime ministerial candidate because of his immense popularity.
