Uma faces axe, expelled from BJP

New Delhi: Defiant Uma Bharti is now out in the cold. A day after the beleagured sanyasin spat fire at BJP party and its top brass, she has been expelled from the party.

The former chief minister of Madhya Pradesh was expelled from the primary membership of the party on Monday evening for indiscipline and anti-party activities.

Annoucing her expulsion, party general secretary Arun Jaitely said that Central Parliamentary Board, which met to consider the reply of Bharti to the show-cause notice issued to her, decided to expel her because the matter was one of "indiscipline".

Jaitley said, Uma tried to shift focus from the issue and took up other issues which were neither germane nor true. "It (the language used by her) is not not the issue of dignified politics, he added.

On Sunday, launching a blistering attack on the party leadership, Uma had alleged that the party as well its chief L K Advani and former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee were being held hostage by a group of "terrorist hijacker leaders who were devoid of ideology and principles".

Exhorting Vajpayee and Advani to "break their silence against injustice", she had said, "Those holding them hostage have been trying to fulfil their personal interests under the garb of enforcing discipline."

She had also taken on the second rung leaders of BJP, including known Uma-baiters Pramod Mahajan and Arun Jaitley.

Though Uma's deadline for replying to the party show cause notice expired on Saturday, party spokesperson Prakash Javadekar had indicated she may be given more time.

However, Sunday's scathing attack on the top brass may have hastened party resolve, which went in for the kill barely 24 hours after the outburst.

Seen as a rising star within the party, and one of the few next-generation leader with a mass base, Uma will most certainly play the martyr and become a rallying point.

At the moment, Uma, who is on a Ram Roti Yatra to Ayodhya, has not revealed her plans.

But her supporters claim that unlike former UP CM Kalyan Singh ? who floated his own party after expulsion and eventually returned before the 2004 General Elections ? Uma has grassroots support to get along on her own.