New Delhi, Jun 7: Nearly six years after she was expelled from the party, firebrand Hindutva leader Uma Bharti was today re-inducted into the BJP that entrusted her with the task of looking after Uttar Pradesh which is going to polls next year.
Announcing her re-entry, BJP president Nitin Gadkari said Uttar Pradesh will be the main area of her work and she will have a “prominent role to play” there in the campaign of the party.
“The decision to reinduct her into the party was taken with consensus... BJP will get a new energy in Uttar Pradesh with Uma,” he said.
52-year-old Bharti was expelled for indiscipline and defying the BJP's central leadership in December 2005 after she had objected to L K Advani's praise of Muhammad Ali Jinnah.
Bharti had then formed her own outfit Bhartiya Janshakti Party.Expressing happiness over her homecoming, Bharti 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 have realised that only BJP is my anchor and destination... In these six years I learnt that if one has to serve the nation and keep some idelogical committment, there is no option other than BJP. I want to forget the last five years I was out of BJP,” Bharti said.
“After remaining with BJP for 16 years, I separated from it over certain unpleasant issues. I had joined BJP due to commitment and left BJP due to commitment,” Bharti said. She said that she later realised that there was no other option than BJP to give the country a plan and preserve the idealogical commitment.
Bharti said her priority will be to take Uttar Pradesh from Ram Mandir to ‘Ram Rajya' as Uttar Pradesh is a state of “Ram and Roti” and “Mandal and Kamandal”. 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 the 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 is no difference in the party on this issue. He said there is no bar for her from travelling across the country but her special attention will be on Uttar Pradesh as it is going to polls and on the ongoing Ganga Abhiyan.
Gadkari said the entry of Bharti into the party fold is going to strengthen the ideology and organisation of BJP. PTI
