Won't participate in 'Jan Ashirward Yatra' if invited now, says BJP leader Uma Bharti

Bharatiya Janata Party leader and former Union minister Uma Bharti on Monday expressed displeasure over not being invited for the party's 'Jan Ashirwad Yatra' launched in Madhya Pradesh, where the assembly polls are due this year-end.

In a series of posts on her social media account X, former MP chief minister Bharti said she will not participate in programmes under the yatra, even if she is invited now.

The BJP leader, however, also said that if MP Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan asks her to campaign for an election, she can do it.

BJP president J P Nadda on Sunday flagged off the party's Jan Ashirwad Yatra from Chitrakoot.

The BJP is taking out the yatras from five different places in Madhya Pradesh, which will culminate on September 25 in state capital Bhopal with a Karyakarta Mahakumbh.

“It is true that I did not receive an invitation for the start of Jan Ashirwad Yatra, but it doesn't make me less or more. Now even if I am invited, I will not go anywhere. Neither at the beginning nor at the closing ceremony on September 25,” Bharti said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

Bharti said there is an 'unbreakable' and strong bond of respect between her and MP CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan.

“Whenever and wherever Shivraj ji asks me to campaign for election, I can campaign by obeying and respecting him,” the former MP CM said.

Bharti further said she is among those people whose 'blood and sweat' have created the BJP and she will never harm the party.

She also shared her experience of treatment in government hospitals compared to private medical facilities and said, “We all leaders, MLAs, MPs, ministers, chief ministers and all officials should get treatment done in government hospitals and send children to study in government schools. Only then these systems can be improved.”

She also termed the staying of leaders in five-star hotels as a wasteful expenditure.

Bharti earlier ran a campaign demanding a stringent liquor policy in Madhya Pradesh.

During the course of Jan Ashirwad Yatras, the BJP will reach out to the people through large public meetings and highlight welfare schemes of the Centre and the state and their achievements.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to address a meeting of BJP workers to mark the culmination of these five mass-contact programmes on September 25 in Bhopal, party leaders said.