Bharatiya Janata Party leader Uma Bharati is missing.
The sanyasin, who was hoping to re-claim the post of chief ministership of Madhya Pradesh, has been incommunicado ever since the party chose to appoint Shivraj Singh Chauhan for the post over her.
Uma's supporters revolted against me: Gaur
Media persons are scratching their heads (sources) to secure information about the whereabouts of Bharati.
A close aide said, "She has left for Kedarnath in Uttranchal and would remain incommunicado for sometime. She left last night."
However, media persons are unwilling to buy the argument as the Kedarnath temple closes during this time of the year and will reopen only next year after the snow melts.
"She is neither at her residence nor in the capital," comes the stock reply when one calls her residence in Delhi.
According to party sources, Bharati is so angry with the party leadership for ditching her that she drove out of the second door after meeting party President L K Advani at his residence on Saturday night, without bothering to get down from the car. This was confirmed by one of the party officials.
Bharati is upset with the party's second-rung leaders, who in one voice turned down the proposal for her re-installation as the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, the post she quit on her own when a Karnataka court issued non-bailable warrants against her in a case last year.
She had passed on the baton to Gaur thinking that he would quit office once she would be bailed out by the court. But that was not to be as Gaur became her bete noir like many others in the party, and refused to oblige. This sparked off Bharati's battle against Gaur.
Now that Shivraj Singh Chauhan has been handed over the reigns of Madhya Pradesh, the sanyasin is the not the only one who is sulking.
Outgoing Chief Minister Babulal Gaur told media persons in Bhopal that he was in the middle of a function at the Indore Press Club when he got a call from Advani asking him to tender his resignation.
Interestingly, Gaur was one of the BJP candidates whose name did not figure in the list of the candidates for the assembly polls two and a half years ago. In fact, he slept under a tree at the party headquarters in New Delhi for three days to press for his ticket. Senior party leaders, who had come down to the party office late night, were moved by the plight of seventy five-year-old party leader and decided to accomodate him.
Bharati may have retracted temporarily but she is bound to bounce back despite having often received threats of strong disciplinary action for defying the party order.