Author:
Publication: PTI
Date: September 23, 2004
BJP leader and former Madhya Pradesh
Chief Minister Uma Bharati on Wednesday declared that she would quit politics
after the tiranga yatra.
"Politics is increasingly becoming
petty. I have realised that posts are not as important as campaigns for
public awakening," she said at a public meeting in Mathura as part of her
tiranga yatra from Hubli to Jalianwala Bagh in Amritsar.
However, she would continue with
such "public awakening" campaigns.
Bharati said she would meditate
for a few days in the mountains of Himachal Pradesh and embark on another
yatra "which will not be political."
The surprise announcement by the
feisty sanyasin politician, already at the Centre of a controversy over
her reported displeasure at the party's "lack of support" for the yatra,
took several veteran BJP leaders including former Union Ministers Ananth
Kumar, Shahnawaz Hussain and Uttar Pradesh state unit president Kesri Nath
Tripathi off guard.
Her announcement also comes in the
midst of reports that there has been an intense struggle among the second
rung leaders in the BJP for claiming leadership of the party.
Bharati's declaration triggered
immediate response from party activists who made repeated pleas to revoke
her decision. An unrelenting Bharati however managed to pacify them.
