Uma Bharti optimistic about returning to power

Itarsi (MP), June 14: Expelled Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Uma Bharti is optimistic of returning to power in Madhya Pradesh by 2007.

Charging that the BJP had gone back on its poll promise of providing ''clean and corruption-free'' administration, Ms Bharti, who arrived here last night on her ''Bharat Bachao Yatra'', told a public meeting that she would conduct a referendum on uninterrupted power supply to farmers and cow protection in October.

''After gaining the public opinion, the BJP government would be unseated in 2007,'' she claimed.

''All those turn-coats will be kept away when I returned to power,'' she said, referring to the absence of several known faces at her reception.

The 'sadhvi' said her new political outfit 'Bharatiya Janshkati' would make a country-wide impact if she remained alive for 10 years.

Talking about her two-decade old political career, Ms Bharti said she joined BJP at the instance of the party's erstwhile leader late Vijayraje Scindia, but she was expelled from the party at the instance of a now deceased leader.

She said ''The Congress is again gaining a foothold in Madhya Pradesh due to the wrong policies of the BJP.'' Several BJP workers were among those who accorded a rousing reception to the 'Sadhvi'.

UNI