Uma on tour, Singhal says take her back

Instead of sulking in the Himalayas, Bharati has now begun her travels that combine pilgrimage with politics, sources said. She has first gone to Chennai and hopes to meet the Kanchi Shankarachrya in Vellore Jail.

She will then move on to Hubli. Since Bharati was forced to give up her chief ministership because of the Hubli flag-hoisting case and then her Tiranga Yatra began from that northern Karnataka town, it holds a special place for her, sources said.

The sanyasin will then move to Hyderabad, though what exactly she will do in Hyderabad and Hubli, apart from meeting “friends and well-wishers’’, is not known. After returning to Delhi briefly, Bharati has plans to visit the Vindhyavasini Temple in Mirzapur. The trip should last about a week by which time, she hopes, a decision on her future will be finalised.

BJP leaders, including those belonging to the anti-Uma camp, said it was only ‘‘a matter of time’’ before Bharati’s suspension was revoked. ‘‘The question is whether it is revoked before the Bihar elections or after,’’ a party functionary said.

Sources said although several second-generation leaders are unhappy with Bharati’s alleged attacks against them, they realise the final decision on her rests on Advani and Vajpayee. And both, especially Advani, are known to have a ‘‘soft spot’’ for their temperamental ‘‘daughter’’.

That hasn’t made Bharati’s detractors, whose numbers have grown steadily in the past few months, from making subtle efforts to stall her return. Decrying the media for portraying the sanyasin as the BJP’s ‘‘OBC face’’, one of them said, ‘‘We have several OBC CMs — Narendra Modi, Babulal Gaur and even Vasundhara, who is married to a Jat family in Rajasthan. Uma is not the only OBC leader in the party.’’

But others are of the view that Bharati has a greater mass appeal and must be deployed in the Assembly elections next year.

Bharati also received an endorsement from VHP chief Ashol Singhal today who, in reply to reporters’ questions, said: ‘‘My personal view is that she should be taken back.’’