Uma accepts "full responsibility" for BJP's bad show in UP

Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Uma Bharti on Wednesday said that she accepted full responsibility for the party's poor showing in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly election.

"I own full responsibility for the BJP's dismal show in Uttar Pradesh, and I am willing to take any punishment that is given to me for this," said Bharti, who was the BJP's campaign in-charge for the polls in the neighbouring state. She also contested a seat.

Talking to the media in Bhopal, she said that people were fed up with the BSP government, and had made up their minds to oust it.

The Samajwadi Party succeeded because its leadership was able to persuade the people that it could give them a proper alternative, Bharti added.

Mayawati faced several problems, including rampant corruption, and those close to her were busy minting money, she alleged. She added that unlike Anil Kappor's character in the film Mr India, who is invisible but effective,

"Mayawati was not only invisible, but also unapproachable" by the people who became disenchanted with her.

Bharti herself won from Charkhari constituency, but the BJP could get only 47 seats.

As to the Samajwadi Party, which is about to form the next government, she said its past record in power was not good, and she was apprehensive about what would happen under its rule.

An inkling of the things to come was available on Tuesday evening when a child was killed in celebratory gun-firing, and journalists were held captive in Jhansi, she said.

The BJP leader said she would fight strongly against all the negative traits of the Samajwadi Party.

Talking about the Congress, Bharti said the poor performance in Uttar Pradesh had presented the party with a chance to get rid of dependence on the Nehru-Gandhi family. Congress leaders and workers should realise that merely projecting someone from the Nehru-Gandhi family did not pay anymore, she added.

For Rediff Realtime News click here