Uma says BJP, Cong hand in glove

Bhopal, June 19 (UNI) Firing a broadside at the Congress and BJP, Ms Uma Bharti, President of the recently-constituted Bharatiya Janshakti (BJ), today accused them of being hand in glove and covertly cooperating on various issues.

''During the NDA regime's tenure the seniormost Congress leader's son and his girlfriend were apprehended in America with foreign currency and drugs but the PMO rescued them,'' the firebrand sadhvi told journalists at her local residence.

Alleging that the two parties were maintaining a silence over drug addicts even now, Ms Bharti added that former Deputy Prime minister L K Advani was to blame for not properly raising the issue of Ms Gandhi's foreign origin.

''A committee headed by former Lok Sabha Speaker P A Sangma went into Ms Gandhi's foreign origin issue but could not vent its opinion vociferously due to Mr Advani,'' she said.

Ms Bharti also referred to national security and spiralling costs while adding that the issues, over which the Congress was once soundly criticised, had now become assimilated in the BJP.

''The BJ has emerged as an alternative at the right time. We work on the principle 'The party is greater than the self and the country is greater than the party','' she claimed.

UNI PKJ-AC MA VV1559