After toying with the idea of floating a new party, former BJP leader Uma Bharati today took a U-turn from her stand after her expulsion from the party by saying that she could never even dream of harming the BJP. However, she was unrelenting in her tirade against certain BJP leaders including LK Advani and Rajnath Singh, as well as the Samajwadi Party and the Congress.Bharati said she would set up a forum of ‘‘like-minded’’ people who would keep a close watch on the BJP leaders ‘‘who deviate from the Hindutva ideology.’’ ‘‘After giving substantial thought to the recent events in the BJP, I have reached at the conclusion that there is no room for revenge in my life. All I need to do is to make the BJP follow the right path,’’ she said while starting her 90-day Janadesh Yatra from Vindhyachal in Mirzapur district.‘‘Now I have realised that the BSP, Samajwadi Party and the Congress were waiting for a split within the BJP. I know that there is enough possibility of an exodus from BJP due to misdirected policies and statements of Advani and Rajnath. But I’ll never let that happen to a party I have nourished all my life,’’ she said.‘‘I can assure people that the party will get a new lease of life. You have given me time to streamline things. I request you to bear with me for 90 more days, as I will announce my next step in Chitrakoot at the end of my yatra. But please don’t think about leaving the BJP,’’ she said.She added, ‘‘I call upon my disillusioned colleagues to trust me and wait and watch how I bring back the party to power in Uttar Pradesh in the Vidhan Sabha election early next year.’’ She lashed out at Samajwadi Party and the BJP leaders in UP and said the people of the state were disillusioned with both. She also tried to rake up the issue of Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s foreign origin. Alleging that she may try to become Prime Minister, Bharati said,‘‘I will never let this happen in my lifetime.’’‘Won’t join BJP, or allow people to desert party either’Q. Earlier you had said you are real BJP. Then you said you would form a new party. And now you are saying that it would be a forum that will clean BJP. Do you want to create confusion?A. There is no confusion. I will never join the BJP again. But I will form a forum that will do its duty to keep a supervisory watch on the BJP. Q. What else would be the duty of your forum and what would be its locus standi? A. I cannot be more specific about my plans before knowing well the response of the people during my Janadesh Yatra. Q. Some BJP leaders believe that you are trying to blackmail the party and bargain for yourself. A. It is rubbish. I have no desire for power. In fact, some BJP leaders blackmailed me, but I cannot let them do so anymore. I am alert now and very comfortable out of the BJP.Q. Kalyan Singh and Lalji Tandon appreciate you and your mission. But there is a feeling that Rajnath Singh dislikes you. Is there any process of polarisation in UP against the party chief”A. Kalyan is my elder brother. Lalji is my chachchu. Kesari Nath Tripathi is also close to me. But that doesn’t mean that we are polarising against Rajnath Singh. In fact, he is too small to be given much importance when the whole discussion has shifted to ideology of the party. Q. What are you trying to prove by the yatra? A. You would soon see how I saved the BJP and how I stopped leaders from deserting the party. —Piyush Srivastava
