Expressing happiness at her homecoming, Ms Bharti, who has also been Madhya Pradesh chief minister, said she was feeling like the proverbial bird of the ship who leaves it only to come back again.
“Out of the party for five-six years, I realised that only the BJP is my anchor and destination... In these six years I learnt that if one has to serve the nation and keep some ideological commitment, there is no option other than the BJP. I want to forget the last five years that I was out of BJP,” she said.
However, senior party leader Vinay Katiyar, who is also a member of the party’s state election committee, said, “I do not see the induction of a new face making much of a difference to the party in Uttar Pradesh where there is no dearth of leaders.”
Ms Bharti, 52, was expelled from the BJP in 2005 for indiscipline and defying the BJP’s central leadership after she had objected to senior party leader L.K. Advani praising Muhammad Ali Jinnah. She had then formed her own outfit, the Bhartiya Janshakti Party. Earlier on Tuesday, Mr Gadkari, while announcing Ms Bharti’s re-entry, said UP will be the main area of her work and she will have a “prominent role to play” there in the party’s campaign.