MLAs elect Chauhan as leader, Uma resents

Former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister and firebrand BJP leader Uma Bharati refused to go quietly into the night and staged a walkout during a state BJP legislative party meeting, along with more than a dozen MLAs, protesting against the nomination of Shivraj Singh Chauhan as the chief minister of the state.

At a stormy meeting of the party legislators on Monday, where 171 out of the party's 174 MLAs were present, Bharati protested when Chauhan's name came up. She said it was 'the first time in the history of India's political parties that a parliamentary board, and not the MLAs, has chosen the chief minister."

Her supporters, who had been waiting for her at the state BJP office, had already broken furniture laid out for the meeting and in tune with their defiant mood, Bharati, along with loyalists like Gauri Shankar Shejwar, staged a walkout even as party general secretary Arun Jaitley tried to conduct the nominal election.

Pandemonium broke out outside the venue, with Bharati sitting on a dharna outside the BJP office. Bharati left after some time, and Jaitley soon came out of the meeting and declared that 154 out of 171 MLAs had voted for Chauhan to be the next chief minister of the state. The Madhya Pradesh Assembly has a total of 230 seats, therefore, Chauhan has no threat to his chair as such.

While Jaitley remained silent on the action to be taken against Bharati, the sanyasin herself declared that she would be undertaking a padyatra to Ayodhya and would be breaking her silence tomorrow.

Earlier, Bharati claimed that she herself had never wanted to be reinstated as the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh but said she was 'unhappy' with the decision to replace Babulal Gaur with Chauhan. "I was elected chief minister by the people of the state. I may be a 'sanyasin', but I am only human. Obviously, I was unhappy with the decision," she said.

However, Bharti rubbished a report that she had called up BJP general secretary Arun Jaitley early on Sunday and threatened to commit suicide if she was not made the chief minister. "This is a malicious report and a dirty joke meant to malign my image," she said. "I have never broken the party discipline," she added..

Former BJP leader K N Govindacharya also attacked party general secretary Arun Jaitley over reports that Bharati had allegedly tried to commit suicide.

Govindacharya confirmed that he had called up Jaitley over the matter. "I only called up Jaitley to tell him that Uma Bharati was upset and wanted to speak to him, nothing else. It is my advice to Arun Jaitley that he separate private life and politics," he said.