Miss Uma Bharti, firebrand leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party, has dared the central leadership to take action against her and declared that she was the 'real BJP' as she stands for "Swadeshi, swaraj and swabhimaan.
In a televised press conference from Madhya Pradesh she alleged that four or five people were running the party." I am not willing to be a sacrificial goat and allow the oxen within the party to do what they feel like. Who would run the party? Four persons who sit in television studios and propound theories, or lakhs of workers of the party?" she asked.
Asked to comment on former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's statement in New Delhi that the indiscipline in the party would not be tolerated, Uma shot back and wanted to know if she is the only one who has violated party discipline.
Referring to Vajpayee's criticism of her 'lust for power', Bharti reminded the former prime minister that it was he who persuaded her to remain in the National Democratic Alliance government, after she voluntarily resigned from the Cabinet.
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"What about taking action against Pramod Mahajan who had written in the BJP Today against the Narendra Modi government. Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj have also violated the party discipline on a number of occasions. Take action against them as well and not just against the daughter of a poor woman who is seeking justice. I would appeal to the media to be fair to me and not print stories that are given to them off record," she said.
She accused the said four persons in the party of trying to hijack the plane of Madhya Pradesh politics and diverting the political plane to the place where they want to take it.
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"I have nothing against Shivraj Singh Chouhan. I was the one who initiated him into politics but what I am against is the manner in which he was elected the leader. I dare Shivraj Singh Chouhan to have an open voting before taking over as the chief minister of the state. I am embarking on a padyatra to Ayodhya and would regulate it in such a manner that it is completed," she told newspersons.
Uma claimed that about a 100 legislators had stood up against Chouhan when his name was proposed at the legislative party meeting in Bhopal on Monday.
"I will challenge them. Bulls can get away with anything and sheep can be herded around. I will not be herded around," she said and dared both Vajpayee and Advani for a debate on the issue of discipline. "Demanding that legislators be consulted cannot be construed as lust for power," she said, before resuming her 'padyatra' to Ayodhya to express 'regrets' for the party's 'betrayal' of the people.
(With agency inputs)