Uma Bharti

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Uma Bharti (born May 3, 1959, Madhya Pradesh, India), is an Indian politician. She was born into a religious Lodhi Rajput family and from a very young age, started holding discourses on Indian Epics. Raised under the loving care of the late Rajmata Vijayaraje Scindia of Gwalior, Uma Bharati, along with the inimitable Sadhvi Ritambhara, emerged among the leading lights of the Ram Janmabhoomi Movement, with her all encompassing slogan of ‘Ramlala Hum Aayenge, Mandir Wahin Banayenge’

At a young age, she became involved with the Bharatiya Janata Party and first contested Parliamentary elections in 1984, but was defeated with the massive sympathy wave for the slain Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi. In 1989, she was successful for the Khajurao seat, which she retained in 1991, 1996 and 1998. In 1999, she switched over and won the Bhopal seat. In the Vajpayee Administration, she went through state-level portfolios of Human Resource Development, Tourism, Youth Affairs & Sports, and finally Coal & Mines.

She showed her mettle in the 2003 Assembly polls when she led the BJP to a stunning three fourths majority in Madhya Pradesh. She trounced her Congress opponent from the Malehra seat with a 25% margin. The seat was vacated by her elder brother, Swami Prasad Lodhi.

In order to match Ms Sonia Gandhi's refusal of the chair of the Prime Minister of India, Uma Bharati resigned as the CM in August 2004, on the issue of the right to hoist the National Flag, when a decade old case against her was resurrected.

1 Removal from BJP and formation of BJSP
2 Timeline
3 External links
4 See also

[edit] Removal from BJP and formation of BJSP

Firstly, in November 2004, she was suspended from the Bharatiya Janata Party "till further action". She was served a show-cause notice asking why she should not be expelled following her outburst against some of her party colleagues. However, due to RSS pressure, her suspension was revoked and in May 2005, she was appointed as a member of the party's national executive.

Her dramatic expulsion coincided with the religious Ram Roti Yatra (spiritual journey for Rama and bread), which she launched after being unsuccessful in preventing Mr Shivraj Singh Chauhan from becoming the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh.

Currently Uma Bharti, having found a sympathiser in many dissiden BJP leaders like Madan Lal Khurana and Sangh Priya Gautam, is trying to revive a new Hindu movement which they claim has been betrayed by the BJP's new warhorses.

Though Uma Bharati drew huge crowds during her Ram Roti Yatra and campaign for various by-elections, her political fortunes have taken a nosedive. Her political outfit, called the BJSP (Bharatiya Janashakti Party) has fought & lost the by-election for her Madhya Pradesh assembly seat of Bada Malehra, even though Uma Bharati had campaigned extensively for her candidate. BJPSP has also experienced defeats in the Lok Sabha bypolls for Amethi (UP), Vidisha (MP), Bhagalpur(Bihar).

Though a section of the RSS and the BJP along with her spiritual guru have been trying to get Bharati back into the BJP, neither an embittered Bharati, who has sworn revenge nor powerful politicians like Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj want her back in the BJP.