Uma Bharti may return to BJP soon: Advani

Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani on Saturday indicated that firebrand Hindutva leader Uma Bharti would return to the party soon to strengthen the organization in Uttar Pradesh and contest elections from the state.

"Uma spoke to me, and on my advice, agreed that she would concentrate hereafter on strengthening the party unit in Uttar Pradesh, which had become greatly enfeebled. She said she would like to contest also from Uttar Pradesh," Advani wrote on his blog.

After taking over as BJP president last year, Nitin Gadkari had expressed the intention of bringing back Jaswant Singh and Bharti to the party fold, Advani said.

Bharti was sacked from BJP in 2005.

"Nitinji himself talked to Uma. But she has sought some time from the party president before plunging headlong into the fray," Advani said.

Speculation has been rife for several months now about Uma's return to the BJP. She had travelled to Raipur with Advani to attend the last rites of Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh's father earlier this year and also accompanied him to Somnath to offer prayers on the anniversary of his Rathyatra.

Advani said the party had become particularly weak in Uttar Pradesh since the 2004 elections. "During those six years in office (1998-2004) our organisational network had become loose. Considered state-wise, the worst affected from this angle was the largest state of the country, Uttar Pradesh, a state in which we fared poorly both in 2004 as well as 2009," he said.

BJP expects Uma to rejuvenate the party in the northern state, which sends 80 members of Parliament to Lok Sabha.

However, he seemed to rule out elections anytime soon and dismissed speculation that the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance may dissolve Lok Sabha and go for early polls. "No government chooses to go in for an early election unless it is confident of victory. UPA's stocks have never before been as low as they are today. The talk of dissolution was intended to frighten MPs. All opposition MPs had become a solid phalanx in support of the demand for a JPC," Advani said.

The senior leader maintained that Atal Bihari Vajpayee decided to go in for early polls in 2004 prompted by the victories in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan assembly elections. "I hold that we lost the 2004 polls mainly because of overconfidence and consequent complacency," he said.