After 6 years, Uma Bharti returns to BJP

Six years after she was expelled for indiscipline, firebrand leader Uma Bharti on Tuesday rejoined the Bharatiya Janata Party at a crowded press conference at the party headquarters at 11 Ashok Road on Tuesday.

"Umaji will play a key role in the forthcoming Uttar Pradesh elections and she would be based in Lucknow. This will strengthen the party and help in removing (UP Chief Minister) Mayawati's goonda raj and prevent (Samajwadi Party chief) Mulayam Singh Yadav's jungle raj from coming back to power," said BJP president Nitin Gadkari while outlining her role in the party.

She has also been made in-charge of the much-hyped Ganga purification project of the party.

Reportage: Onkar Singh in New Delhi

In her brief address, Bharti conceded that it took her five years to realise that her belief in the BJP's ideology is her real goal.

"Like a sparrow who wants to get away from the ship but eventually realises that it is the ship which will take her to the shore, I felt that my ultimate future lies with the BJP, the party which I joined when I was eight years old when I came in touch with Rajmata Vijayeraje Scindia. I want to forget the period that I have been out of the party. I want to forget my past," she said.

Gadkari said that Bharti had expressed her desire to rejoin the party. "I consulted everyone who matters in the party before inviting her to rejoin the party and strengthen it," he said.

Bharti, 52, was expelled for indiscipline and defying the BJP's central leadership in December 2005 after she had objected to senior leader L K Advani's praise of Muhammad Ali Jinnah.

Bharti had then formed her own outfit Bhartiya Janshakti Party.

"After remaining with BJP for 16 years, I separated from it over certain unpleasant issues. I had joined BJP due to my commitment and left BJP due to my commitment," Bharti said.

She thanked party leaders for "accepting" her back into the party fold.

Welcoming the former Madhya Pradesh chief minister back into the party, Gadkari said that she had expressed her desire to work for the party to strengthen the ideology in which she has "unflinching" faith.

Asked whether leaders from Madhya Pradesh, including Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who were opposing her re-induction, were happy with the decision, Gadkari said he has consulted all leaders from the state and now there are no differences within the party on this issue.

With additional inputs from PTI