Uma cries foul at legislature meet

Bhopal: BJP General Secretary Uma Bharti has lashed out at the party leadership for imposing a chief minister on Madhya Pradesh.

She believes that Shivraj Singh Chauhan should have been elected by the BJP legislators in Bhopal.

Bharti is sulking and hence she did not take a bus or train to Bhopal. Refusing to meet reporters in Delhi, she travelled by car the entire distance of 700 km to Bhopal.

In Bhopal, she went into a huddle with her own supporters as she was in no mood to accept Shivraj Singh Chauhan as the new Chief Minister.

"This is historic in the sense that the parliamentary board has elected the chief minister of a state. People can propose names but according to the rules, it is the MLAs who choose the chief minister," Bharti said.

"I have given my reaction (about Chauhan?s appointment) to the party top brass and I would not like to share it with the media," Bharti added.

Bharti claimed she herself had never wanted to be reinstated as the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh but said she was "unhappy" with the decision to replace Babulal Gaur with Chauhan.

With the ongoing tussle between Bharti and the party, it seems Chauhan is going to have a very troubled time in office.

An angry Uma Bharti is difficult to handle though Chauhan has said that he wants to be friendly with everybody.

The general secretary's post is not what Bharti was looking forward to as she wanted to control Bhopal. She would have been happy if she got back her chief minister's job or at least if the party decided on a chief minister whom she could control.

"I was elected Chief Minister by the people of the state. I may be a sanyasin, but I am a human being first. Obviously, I was unhappy with the decision," she said.

However, Bharti rubbished a media report that she had called up BJP leader Arun Jaitley early on Sunday and threatened to commit suicide if she was not made the Chief Minister.

"This is a malicious report and a dirty joke meant to vilify my image," she said.

Bharti said she had come to Bhopal as an ordinary legislator to attend the legislature party meeting, as "I have never broken the party discipline".

There are no elections in the next few months where Uma Bharti can be diverted and asked to campaign.

Without much of a job, she can be an unguided missile. Even party president L K Advani had found that out last year.