Sharing aircraft with LK Advani may have opened a window of opportunity for Uma Bharti’s return to BJP, but sections in the party are strongly opposed to the move.
Sharing aircraft with LK Advani may have opened a window of opportunity for Uma Bharti’s return to BJP, but sections in the party are strongly opposed to the move. A section in RSS is also not favourably inclined.
As he did in the case of Jaswant Singh, another sacked BJP leader, Advani invited Uma to accompany him on a flight to Raipur to attend a condolence meeting for Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh’s father, leading to speculation that she may follow Jaswant into BJP.
The air travel followed efforts by Uma and sympathisers over the past few months to ensure her return to the party fold.
BJP sources said Advani was playing a patriarch to facilitate Uma’s reentry after Jaswant’s return was in principle agreed on, but a strong section in the party led by Madhya Pradesh (MP) chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and tacitly backed by senior leaders such as Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj was opposed to her rejoining.
Chouhan, MP BJP chief Prabhat Jha and Suresh Soni, an RSS point man in BJP, have reportedly opposed Uma’s return. Uma is learnt to have met RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat last month seeking help for her rehabilitation. She reportedly followed it up with phone calls to a couple of ministers in MP to convey that the response from Nagpur was positive.
An incensed Chouhan also reportedly approached Bhagwat and apprised him of the “consequences” his government might face in the event of Uma’s return.
Jaitley and Swaraj have their own reasons to stop her. While Uma had publicly accused Jaitley of briefing scribes against her “off the record”, Swaraj sees in her return a clash of political interests in MP from where she is a member of parliament.
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