New Delhi, December 24
Fortythree days after the disciplinary action against her for challenging the party leadership and launching an open attack against some of the second rung leaders, BJP president L.K. Advani today restored the primary membership of former party General Secretary and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Uma Bharti.
Though there was no official word on whether or not she would also be given back the position of the National General Secretary but BJP’s Bihar unit President Gopal Narain Singh declared that Ms Bharti will be among the party’s star campaigners in the run up to assembly poll in Bihar.
“BJP President L.K. Advani has decided to lift the suspension on Ms Uma Bharti,” former party president M. Venkaiah Naidu, flanked by party General Secretary Arun Jaitely and additional spokesperson Manavendra Singh, told newspersons here.
Asked whether Ms Bharti will be back as General Secretary, Ms Naidu said “I can only announce and not pronounce.”
Replying to another question, Mr Naidu asserted that Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Babu Lal Gaur would “stay” in his position and had the full support of MLAs, state and Central party leaders.
Ms Bharti was suspended from the party’s primary membership on November 10, after she stormed out of the party’s national office-bearers meeting here, chaired by Mr Advani, demanding action against “leaders without base”.
Ms Bharti had stunned the BJP leadership by attacking leaders like Mr Naidu, Mr Jaitley, Mr Pramod Mahajan and Mr Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi in the presence of Mr Advani and former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee in full glare of TV cameras.
Minutes after Ms Bharti’s show of defiance, an embarrassed and shocked leadership thought it fit to suspend her immediately from the party’s primary membership to salvage some prestige.
The day after her suspension, Ms Bharti wrote an emotional letter to Mr Vajpayee and Mr Advani, virtually justifying her defiance but claimed a “daughter” had been wronged on the auspicious day of ‘dan teras’ before Divali.
Ironically, the office-bearers’ meeting, first after Mr Advani took charge of the party, was convened to send a tough message to party cadres on discipline in the wake of open rumblings among second rung leaders.
She later met the two leaders and left on a pilgrimage to Kedarnath from where she wrote a letter of regret for her actions but wanted the party also to reciprocate for the wrong done to her.
Then a controversy again broke when a Hindi weekly magazine published a letter purportedly written by her in which party leaders, mainly the second rung, came under severe attack. She rushed to the Capital to meet Mr Advani again and strongly denied having written such a letter, calling it “forged”.
The letter appeared to have delayed a decision on revocation of her suspension.
Meanwhile, Mr Gopal Narain Singh, who was here to meet the Central leadership to apprise them about various political activities of the party in Bihar, told mediapersons that Ms Bharti would be one of the star campaigners of the party in the state.
The BJP Bihar unit President said all top state and Central leaders would be effectively used in the campaign.
