'Vajpayee, Advani play "widowed aunts" in BJP'

New Delhi, Feb 10: Bharatiya Jan Shakti party President Uma Bharti has dubbed the role of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and former Deputy PM L K Advani in the BJP as that of ''widowed aunts'' living in their parents' home where everybody touched their feet but nobody listened to them''.

The former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, who was ousted from the BJP as General Secretary, told in an interview that though the leaders were revered as ''father figures'', they were under the grips of ''power brokers'' ever since 2002.

She also claimed that her remarks were not just political but ''factual''.

Recalling her storming out of office-bearers meeting at the BJP headquarters in November 2004, she said, ''It is by God's divine intervention that I am out of the party.'' ''The Hindutva ideology was badly damaged and bruised, abused and misused by the BJP and somebody had to protect it. I believe it was a divine intervention,'' Ms Bharti told CNN-IBN in an interview to be telecast tomorrow.

Asked if it was ''immature'' on her part to walkout, Ms Bharti turned the tables on Mr Advani, the then BJP President, claiming that his conduct before the camera and the media was ''immature''.

''He (Mr Advani) was reprimanding me in front of the media.

He himself was not practicing what he preached,'' Ms Bharti added.

About the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections last year where BJS was unable to even retain Bada Malhera, the seat represented by her, Ms Bharti said at that time her party was only a nine-month-old baby occupying fourth or fifth place in the state.

''Give me three years, you will know the BJS's strength,'' she said, adding, the credibility could not be counted by votes but by ideology.

Claiming that the BJS would be able to have its own Prime Minister by 2015, she said she was not worried if her party would not win many seats in the Punjab and Uttarakhand Assembly elections.

Asked if she was playing the role of a ''spoiler'', Ms Bharti said one has to begin from somewhere. The BJP and its previous 'avatar' Jan Sangh lost deposits for almost three decades without winning the contest. ''If we are fighting elections in Punjab and Uttarakhand, I don't claim winning all the seats,'' she said.

UNI