Former Chief Minister Uma Bharti here on Monday expressed her disappointment on not being invited by the BJP for its ‘Jan Ashirwad Yatra’ flagged off by JP Nadda in Madhya Pradesh's Bhopal.
Claiming that the BJP's victory over the Congress under her leadership in 2003, Bharti said, “If Jyotiraditya Scindia helped them form the government in 2020, even I helped them form a bigger majority government in 2003."
The 64-year-old BJP firebrand, however, said, "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." The BJP leader also asserted that she would continue to campaign for the party in the coming polls.
While the BJP was yet to comment on her statement, Congress leader Randeep Surjewala, who was in Bhopal, criticised the BJP alleging that it is "habitual of insulting all its leaders".
“Modi and Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led government has continuously sidelined veteran party leaders. The prime minister sidelined his own leader Lal Krishna Advani, retired Murli Manohar Joshi. In our culture, even God does not forgive the one who does not respect elders,” the Congress MP said.
In 2003, leading the BJP to a three-fourth majority, Bharti had put a full stop to the 10-year-old Congress rule in Madhya Pradesh -- then headed by Digvijaya Singh. However, in 2005, the senior BJP leader was expelled from the party and then reinstated in 2011.
In 2013, Bharti was appointed as one of the 13 vice-presidents to steer the BJP party through the Lok Sabha elections. The BJP leader refused to support – then BJP party leader Yashwant Sinha’s idea of declaring Narendra Modi as the NDA’s prime ministerial candidate because of his growing popularity.
Bharti told media perosns that popularity cannot decide the prime ministerial candidate and there were several leaders with lesser mass appeal who could be very efficient as Prime Minister.
On being asked about Tamil Nadu minister Udhyanidhi Stalin’s ‘Sanatana Dharma’ remark, Bharti told reporters, “It is highly condemnable. The INDIA bloc should apologise to the nation. He is Stalin's son and associated with the opposition alliance. If the INDIA alliance leaders don't apologise, it'll cost them."
