BJP's Uma Bharti.
Credit: X/@umasribharti
Firebrand BJP leader and former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Uma Bharti has hit out at the saffron party after not being invited to the Jan Ashirwad Yatra flagged off by party president J P Nadda, reported NDTV.
"May be they (the BJP leaders) are nervous that if I'm there, then entire public attention will be on me", she said, adding "If Jyotiraditya Scindia helped them form the government (in 2020), even I helped them form a bigger majority government (in 2003)".
Bharti, who was once known to be close to L K Advani, continued "He (Scindia) is loved by me as a nephew, but at least I was worthy of being invited to the Yatra launch, even though I wouldn't have gone there. But I'll still campaign for the BJP and solicit votes for the party in the coming polls".
The Congress took the chance to highlight how Bharti, once among the leaders of the Ram Temple movement that brought BJP to the limelight, is now being sidelined.
"The party sidelined former Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani, retired Murli Manohar Joshi... In our culture, even God does not forgive the one who does not respect elders," Congress's Randeep Surjewala said adding that the BJP "insults its leaders".
Bharti in 2003 had ended the rule of the Digvijaya Singh-led Congress government in Madhya Pradesh but in 2005 was expelled from the party for indiscipline only to be back in the fold in 2011.
She had infamously shot down the idea of declaring Narendra Modi the NDA's prime ministerial candidate based on his popularity telling in an interview at the time that popularity alone is not the deciding factor for a prime ministerial candidate since there are often leaders with lesser mass appeal who can be very efficient in the position.