Advani offered me to fight LS polls on BJP ticket: Uma Bharti

Former firebrand BJP leader Uma Bharti has claimed that veteran leader L K Advani had offered her to contest the last Lok Sabha elections on a party ticket from Uttar Pradesh, but she declined.

Former firebrand BJP leader Uma Bharti has claimed that veteran leader L K Advani had offered her to contest the last Lok Sabha elections on a party ticket from Uttar Pradesh, but she declined.

HT Image

"Advani offered me to come back to BJP and contest from Amroha Lok Sabha constituency," Bharti told PTI-Bhasha.

"I rejected Advani's offer as I did not want to fight the elections on anyone's mercy. Accepting Advani as my leader, I told him that I want to be a part of the NDA," she said.

The Bharatiya Janashakti Party chief said she cannot be separated from the BJP. "We will be finished if we tried to look different from the BJP as the core ideology of our party and BJP is so similar. It is my political compulsion that I cannot be a part of any other alliance but NDA," she said.

When asked if she would return to BJP, Bharti said she did not want to join BJP, but be a part of the NDA.

She said she had put up a proposal before Advani and JD(U) chief Sharad Yadav that her party wants to be a part of the NDA. "I have not got any response to it so far, BJP's new president Nitin Gadkari has not even contacted me once."

"My proposal was pending before Advani and I was told that only after Gadkari's appointment will any decision be taken," she said.