Uma insists no egg on her face

The very next day, Bhopal Congress Mayor Vibha Patel issued a press note condemned it, alleging that the cake may have contained eggs. The issue was picked up by the vernacular media in a big way.

At a press conference today, a clearly upset Uma lashed out at Digvijay Singh. ‘‘This is a deliberately thought out political conspiracy by the Congress. Now I now how Atalji feels. The same thing was done when it was alleged that he eats beef. How can I, a Sadhvi, even think of defiling the maryada of a temple. I would rather die.’’

As for what happened in the temple, ‘‘I did not enter the sanctum sanctorum where women are not allowed. I was standing at the railing surrounding the idol when some youth behind me gave me the cake. The cake was made of kalakand, there was no question of there being eggs in it. I did not see the pujari offering aarti with the cake to the idol.’’

Asked if she had sung happy birthday Hanumanji and lit candles on the ‘‘kalakand cake’’, she said: ‘‘This is a question associated with my personal belief. It is between me and God.’’ Alleging that this was part of a deliberate plan, she said, ‘‘This is being done to take the attention away from what I saw and said in Chhindwara. I challenge Sonia Gandhi to tour the villages in Chhindwara and answer what her party has done in an area where it has been in power for more than 50 years. It is when I stated such things that this controversy was created.

‘‘This is politics of the lowest, the worst kind, Digvijay has lost his balance,’’ she said.