Uma back in BJP, put in charge of UP polls
BJP chief Nitin Gadkari, much to the chagrin of a section of top party leaders, on Tuesday re-inducted expelled saffron sanyasin Uma Bharti into the BJP. She has been tasked with improving the party’s prospects in Uttar Pradesh where Assembly polls are due next year.
Ms Bharti’s induction also make evident the RSS’ growing shadow in the BJP and that Hindutva will be the party’s main plank in the forthcoming Assembly polls. Even Ms Bharti said her priority will be to take UP from “Ram Mandir to Ram Rajya” as it is a state of “Ram and Roti” and “Mandal and Kamandal”.
Sources, however, disclosed Ms Bharti has been asked by Mr Gadkari not to interfere in Madhya Pradesh, whose chief minister, Mr Shivraj Singh Chouhan, had been leading the campaign against her re-induction. Though Mr Gadkari claimed it was a unanimous decision, some top leaders, whom she had once openly accused of “briefing” the media, wonder how long she can keep away from another controversy. Without naming names, she had pointed fingers at Mr Arun Jaitley and Mr M. Venkaiah Naidu for “planting stories against her”. Even in UP, where the party wants Ms Bharti to woo the “Hindutva” vote as well as backward caste vote, senior leaders feel she will not be of much help. Ms Bharti belongs to the Lodh community and UP has a sizeable number of backward community voters.
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