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Raja's words add salt, not salve

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Our Political Bureau New Delhi
If they were not from Diggy Raja, these words of "sympathy" would have given her much-needed solace. But the beleaguered former Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, Uma Bharati, is not likely to thank her "pen pal" for this.
 
Reacting to the developments in the Madhya Pradesh BJP, former Chief Minister Digvijay Singh today said that Uma Bharati has been exploited by the BJP and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad consistently.
 
"They will never make her the chief minister again. She is a great rabble rouser. So when it came to campaigning, they exploited her, but gave her nothing in return," said a smiling Singh at the party headquarters here.
 
In political circles, the two are called the "famous pen pals" of MP, thanks to their spats through letters. It was only recently that Diggi Raja had suggested in a letter to her that a "sanyasin" should not hunger for power.
 
This had come in response to Bharati's letter to him in which she had accused him of trying to win favour from an "Italian woman" (Sonia Gandhi) by abusing countrymen.
 
Replying to this, Singh had offered her free advice on how to dislodge Babulal Gaur from the post of Chief Minister. "Sit quietly... try to get commitments made to people fulfilled while highlighting the wrongdoings of the BJP government," he was reported to have suggested her.
 
Singh repeated the advice today: "Instead of taking off on a pada yatra, she should be spending more time in fulfilling the promises made to the people, which she is not doing."
 
The developments in the MP BJP have apparently cheered the drooping spirit of the All India Congress Committee general secretary, who was in charge of the Bihar election and had predicted a much improved show by the party.
 
On Tuesday, Singh was seen calling up MP Congress Committee chief Subhash Yadav to discuss the party's strategy in the wake of the recent developments in the state BJP.
 
The Congress camp believes that Uma Bharati would be forced to launch a regional political party soon. The Congress is, therefore, gearing up to fish in troubled waters.

 
 

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First Published: Nov 30 2005 | 12:00 AM IST

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