Naidu, Sushma resist Uma’s return to party

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After Jaswant Singh, the saffron camp could see the return of expelled sanyasin, Ms Uma Bharati. The move being jointly engineered by senior BJP leader Mr L.K. Advani and party chief Mr Nitin Gadkari, is however, being opposed by some of the party heavyweights including leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, Ms Sushma Swaraj and senior leader Mr M. Venkaiah Naidu.

Mr Advani on Wednesday took along Ms Bharti on a flight to Raipur to attend the prayer meeting of Chhattisgarh chief minister Mr Raman Singh’s father. Former party chief Mr Rajnath Singh and national general secretary Mr Ravishankar Prasad were also on the same flight.
In Raipur, neither Mr Advani nor Ms Bharti interacted with the media. These leaders later left for Kawardha in a helicopter to attend the prayer meeting. Ms Bharti, after the prayer meeting told the media “Advaniji asked me to accompany him in his plane to attend the condolence meeting.” Later, at a public function, both Mr Advani and Ms Bharti praised each other.
Meanwhile, in New Delhi when a senior BJP leader asked to comment on when Ms Bharti would be reinducted, jokingly said,” Jo bhi expelled leader Advaniji ke saath plane mein jaata hai, wo party mein wapas aa jaata hai (all those expelled leaders who travel with Mr Advani, return to the party).” Earlier Mr Advani had taken along expelled leader and former Union minister Jaswant Singh on a flight to attend former vice president Bhairon Singh Shekhawat’s funeral. Speculations are rife that Mr Singh would be rejoining the party very soon. In Ms Bharti’s case, it was learnt that Mr Gadkari and Mr Advani had already started consulting other senior leaders for her smooth return to the party, amidst stiff opposition from a section of party leaders. Even the RSS had given green signal to her return. Ms Bharti was expelled in 2005 when she publicly criticised Mr Advani.
Ms Bharti, who had formed Bhartiya Janshakti Party (BJS) after her expulsion from BJP, recently relinquished from the post of BJS chief. Though she denied joining the BJP, she already had series of meetings with Mr Advani and Mr Gadkari.
It could be mentioned here that Madhya Pradesh chief minister Mr Shivraj Singh Chauhan had strongly reacted to Ms Bharti’s return to the party.