 "Uma Bharti")
Former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister and BJP leader Uma Bharti on Monday said that she has "not quit politics" and that she would contest the next election.
Addressing a public meeting in the Sagar district of Bundelkhand region in Madhya Pradesh, she said she only took a five-year break as she had been working for a long time.
"I had refused to contest the election [last time] as I had been working for a long time. I thought of taking a break for five years. People thought that I left politics, but I am tired of saying that I have not quit politics," she was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.
Citing several development works, including the Ken-Betwa river interlinking project and the Lalitpur-Singrauli rail line, Bharti said these projects became a reality as she was in politics.
"Whether I turn 75 or 85, I will remain active in politics and contest the next election. I like politics very much," she said.
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Assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh are due in November this year, while the Lok Sabha elections are scheduled next year.
Bharti had last contested the Lok Sabha election from Jhansi (Uttar Pradesh) in 2014 and, after winning it, became a Union minister in the Narendra Modi-led BJP government.
Earlier this month, Bharti, the former Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, had expressed her displeasure for not being invited to the BJP's Jan Ashirwad Yatra launched by party president JP Nadda on September 3.
"It is true that I did not receive an invitation for the start of Jan Ashirwad Yatra, but it doesn't make me less or more. Now, even if I am invited, I will not go anywhere. Neither at the beginning nor at the closing ceremony on September 25," Bharti said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
During the course of Jan Ashirwad Yatras, the BJP will reach out to the people through large public meetings and highlight the welfare schemes of the Centre and the state and their achievements.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to address a meeting of BJP workers to mark the culmination of these five mass-contact programmes on September 25 in Bhopal, party leaders said.
