BJP says Gaur doing good job, Uma ducks media

Even as Uma Bharati held talks with her supporters to chalk out further moves for a leadership change in Madhya Pradesh, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) central leadership today sent out a clear message to Bharati and her supporters saying Chief Minister Babulal Gaur was doing a "good job".

Contradicting the suggestion that Bharati's supporters were yesterday assured by the top party brass of a change of guard after the Bihar Assembly elections, Arun Jaitley, BJP general secretary incharge for MP, said in New Delhi, "We only assured them that any issue has to be raised in the party's internal forum. These too are not to be raised when the party is in the poll mode."

And the message seems to had its impact in Bhopal. Bharati, after two rounds of meeting with her supporters, which according to sources, could not reach any conclusion, refused to meet the waiting reporters. She deputed her close associate and former central minister Prahlad Patel to talk to media.

Objecting to reports that Bharati supporters had launched the move to dislodge Gaur, Patel said it was "well within" MLAs' right to write to Kailash Joshi, state party incharge, demanding a meeting of party legislators.

He also criticised Gaur for intimidating ministers and MLAs for raising their voice in support of Bharati. He, however, refused to disclose the outcome of MLAs' meeting.

Reacting to questions, Bharati loyalist and MLA Hukum Singh Yadav said, "We will wait till the Bihar Assembly election results."

In a veiled warning to Bharati, Jaitley said, "We hope leaders will stop making their statements publicly". "We want the party's full energies to be focused on the Bihar elections as also the media's attention," he said in a lighter vein.

Asked about Bharati meeting her supporters in Bhopal, he said, "I am not aware of any statement made today".

To questions about Bharati's participation in the Bihar poll campaign, he said, "She has worked in the first phase and will continue to work for the remaining parts too".

"There was a problem and it has been resolved," state BJP chief Shivraj Singh Chouhan told reporters in Bhopal.

"The BJP is a family and problems do arise. There is internal democracy in the party. I ask workers to ensure that these problems are raised in appropriate forum, instead of raising the issue in the media," he said.

To a query, Chouhan said, "I will speak to the chief minister and other ministers and try to resolve whatever problems the MLAs had complained of. Ministers have to redress their grievances."