BJP walls up behind Uma but cracks show

If Advani’s remark was a subtle confirmation that the party leadership had not taken kindly to Bharati’s dramatic announcement, BJP president Venkaiah Naidu was far more direct.

At the outset of his long speech, Naidu said: ‘‘This felicitation is not for Uma Bharati; the Tiranga Yatra was not Uma Bharati’s (yatra)…it was not the yatra of an individual but that of an ideology.’’ On the proposed Bharat Parikarama Yatra, Naidu said the proposal would be first discussed by the party ‘‘because an individual does not matter’’.

Dismissing media reports of infighting as ‘‘disinformation’’, Naidu said: ‘‘We do not believe in one family or in one individual. We have many leaders — Arun Jaitley, Arun Shourie, Pramod Mahajan, Narendra Modi, Sushma Swaraj, Uma Bharati, Babulal Marandi, Karia Munda…we are developing everybody, we are encouraging all our second-rung leaders.’’

Bharati didn’t blame the media but said Naidu had been unfairly blamed. While the yatra had changed her life, her only regret was about Naidu — whose plight she referred to as ‘‘havan karte haath jalana’’ (drawing flak while doing good). Naidu had, after all, organised the route and logistics and supported the yatra, though she was ‘‘merely an ex-chief minister’’, she pointed out.

Bharati’s apparent turnaround came after a flurry of meetings through the day to resolve the bitterness that had developed between her and the party leadership, particularly Naidu. She had two meetings with Advani and a one-on-one with Naidu — in which she both explained why she had felt ‘‘hurt’’ and apologised for ‘‘going too far’’, sources said.

Meanwhile, her successor Babulal Gaur held a press conference — the second in the capital after taking over as CM barely six weeks ago — to scotch speculation that Bharati would take over. ‘‘The leadership has expressed complete support for my developmental programmes and I have been given the assurance that I will stay the full term,’’ he said.

Advani, on the other hand, stressed ‘‘we must never forget that it was because of Uma’’ that the BJP won an unprecedented three-fourth majority in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections and retained that lead in the Lok Sabha polls. Never mind that her nominee Prahlad Patel wasn’t even given a ticket in the bypolls this time around.