Uma Supports Advani for PM
Coming at a time when faction feuds in the party are beginning to threaten his prime ministerial aspirations, LK Advani, perhaps, had reason to rejoice on Tuesday, with former Madhya Pradesh chief minister and Bharatiya Jana Shakti chief, Uma Bharti promising to pull out the “road blocks” between the BJP stalwart and the top office at 7-RCR.
In a fence-mending letter to Advani, the unpredictable Bharti is said to have written: “I have decided that I would not become a road block in you becoming the prime minister.”
Analysts refuse to read much into the firebrand Bharti’s latest move and construe the letter as nothing more than an attempt to return back to the BJP – her former party, which expelled in 2004 her for launching a tirade against Advani in full media glare.
She, however, returned to the BJP in 2005 for a brief stint as a member of the party national executive before finally launching the BJS after Shivraj Singh Chouhan was appointed the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh.
Bharti, whose maiden electoral foray in the 2008 Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections turned out to be a damp squib, is the last of Advani’s worries this summer, add the politically astute.
While promising full support to Advani and even expressing willingness to follow his directives, Bharti clarifies that she has no immediate plans to join the BJP. And if her explicit advances find takers in the BJP is something only time will tell.
