Will Rama Navami herald return of Uma Bharati to BJP?

The return of former Delhi chief minister Madan Lal Khurana to the BJP has sharpened the focus on Uma Bharati. The Madhya Pradesh unit office-bearers of her Bharatiya Jana Shakti Party, or whoever are still left with her, are hopeful that the sadhvi may rejoin the parent party on the auspicious day of Raam-Navami that falls on April 14. Uma had been in constant touch with the RSS leaders who were said to be negotiating her return to the BJP. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leaders have always felt that Uma's real place is in the BJP. However, the home-coming for her may not be as smooth as it was for Khurana for the simple reason that the latter had not carried out a constant tirade against the BJP leadership and even when he spoke against the leadership, he did it with restraint. Of late he had been more or less quiet. That is not the case with Uma Bharati. She had been using the most intemperate language against the BJP leadership, not sparing even Atal Behari Vajpayee and Lal Krishna Advani. The sore point with her is the election of Shivraj Singh Chauhan as the leader of the BJP Legislature Party when her followers in the party had convinced her that they would accept no one except her as the leader. It was, for her, like snatching the morsel even as she was about to swallow it. She had called it a conspiracy and berated the leadership for denying her what she considered her due and described Chauhan as bacha-chor (child-lifter). She dictated terms to the BJP leadership for return to the party. Instead of accepting her terms, the leadership expelled her from the party. Prodded by her supporters, she formed her Bharatiya Jana Shakti Party and had sweet illusion that there would be an exodus from the BJP into her party. It did not happen. Her Bharatiya Jana Shakti candidates were badly defeated in by-elections in Madhya Pradesh, including in Bada-Malehra Assembly constituency which she had herself vacated. Her party did not get any better response in other States. For some time the sadhvi had been beaming contradictory signals, indicating that she was not feeling at ease being away from the BJP but she wanted an "honourable" settlement for rejoining those whom she had been badmouthing all this time. Her directive (which was flouted) to her Bharatiya Jana Shakti candidates in the Gujarat Assembly elections to step down in favour of the BJP candidates was the first clear indication of her yearning for return to the BJP. However, it only complicated the things for her. Some of those who had left the BJP to join her were so fed up with her flip-flops that they decided to part company with her. Prominent among them were Raghunandan Sharma who returned to the BJP around the Gujarat Assembly elections and was one of the three BJP candidates elected to Rajya Sabha in the March 28 poll. Former Union minister Prahlad Patel, who had always been with Uma Bharati even in the BJP and was among the first to throw his lot with her, was so upset with Uma's constantly changing moods during the Gujarat elections that he gave her a bit of his mind in no uncertain terms.