Uma slaps partyman, then tries to kiss and make up, but he walks out

Uma had stopped his four-wheeler when he was on way to the party office in the town and slapped him before he could realise why even as the people around, her security personnel and journalists watched.

Uma was reportedly angry because Rai’s supporters had refused to clear the Circuit House, and an Election Commission observer who was staying in an adjacent room had complained to the local police calling it a violation of code of conduct.

Rai incidentally belongs to the BJS faction led by former Union minister Prahlad Patel, who once used to be Uma’s close confidant but has now fallen out with her.

Rai isn’t the first leader to fall victim to Uma’s temper, or to leave the party because of it. Uma often boasts that bureaucrats used to be scared of her when she was the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh because she would brook no nonsense.

However, on Wednesday, as TV channels started going to town with the clip of the slap, Uma went to Rai’s house and kissed him repeatedly, even to facilitate better shots, saying she apologised for her action. “He is like my kid,” she told reporters.

Still smarting from the humiliation but overwhelmed by ‘Didi’s’ affection on live television, Rai said he had no issue with her and understood why she was so angry.

However, later — when the “humiliation sunk in” — he changed his mind. “I felt so humiliated that I decided to quit with my supporters,” he told The Indian Express over the phone from Chhindwara, adding that 250-300 workers of the party would also be quitting the BJS.

Rai said he was the founding member of the party and had even refused a ticket to serve the organisation. “I regret the day I joined politics… I went everywhere with her from Kanyakumari to Ayodhya.”

Rai claimed he had not spoken to Patel on the matter. When asked about the incident, Patel said: “It’s an insult to her, not him.”