Uma changes tune, praises Vajpayee, Advani

Khandwa, MP, Nov 30 (UNI) Singing a different tune vis-a-vis the Bharatiya Janata Party's apex leadership, Bharatiya Jan Shakti (BJS) Founder-President Uma Bharti today described former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, ex-deputy premier L K Advani and the late Pramod Mahajan as persons who favoured moral values.

''Those responsible for the BJP's decline are its third and fourth-generation leaders who believe that power politics is solely a means for raking in the moolah,'' she told mediapersons here.

The firebrand sanyasin claimed that second-generation bigwigs such as Ms Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley and she herself kept within democratic limits to a considerable extent.

Ms Bharti was here to drum up support for BJS candidate Vasudev Atoot ahead of Khandwa district's Pandhana assembly bypoll.

''This state's (BJP) government was formed (in 2003) by a sadhvi's tapasya (meditation) but a few leaders have made that regime a medium for minting money. The fashion in which the BJP government has declined over the past five months, even humbles the Congress decline during five decades of its rule,'' she added.

Ms Bharti felt that the BJP's decline was more tragic as the party tomtommed high moral values.

UNI XC-AC 2003