BHOPAL: Perhaps the lone politician from Madhya Pradesh who has won Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha polls from two states – former Chief Minister Uma Bharti – is willing to contest the 2029 LS polls, if the BJP fields her from Uttar Pradesh’s Jhansi seat.
“I have told journalists in UP’s Lalitpur district that I’m ready to contest the 2029 Lok Sabha polls, if fielded by the party (BJP) from Jhansi,” the 66-year-old saffron-clad politician posted on the social media platform X (formerly twitter) on Sunday.
Importantly, the former Madhya Pradesh CM, who has been a cabinet minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government as well as the Narendra Modi 1.0 regime at the centre, has won six LS polls between 1989 and 2014 from three seats of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, including four times from Khajuraho, once from Bhopal (MP) and the last time in 2014 from UP’s Jhansi seat.
Not only has she won the Lok Sabha polls from both MP and UP, but also emerged victorious for the BJP in assembly polls from the two neighbouring states, including the Malhara seat of Chhatarpur district of MP in 2003 and the Charkhari seat in Mahoba district of UP in 2012.
Earlier on Saturday, while interacting with journalists in Lalitpur (UP), Bharti had reportedly said, “Bundelkhand, of which Jhansi is a part, is my emotional home. I share a deep bond with its people. If the party asks, I will definitely contest.”
Bharti has kept herself away from electoral politics after winning the 2014 LS polls from Jhansi. She had cited health grounds and commitment to the cause of River Ganga to keep herself away from contesting the 2019 and 2024 national elections.
In August this year, she had maintained that she wasn’t away from politics and would return to the electoral field at an appropriate time.
Back in March 2024, just a month before the Lok Sabha polls, Bharti (one of the frontal leaders of the Ram Temple Movement) had said, “Till January 21, 2024, I was keen at contesting the LS polls and a prominent individual (who isn’t part of BJP, but the party acts on his advice) asked me to finalize out of 2-3 seats of UP (which didn’t include Jhansi). I assured him that on my return from Ayodhya on January 22, 2024, I would make my choice of the seat in UP known." She added, "But once at the Ram Temple consecration ceremony in Ayodhya, I remembered former VHP president Late Ashok Singhal, whose perseverance led to the realisation of the dream of Ram Temple construction. Suddenly, I was blessed with garlands of Ram Lala, which I offered in river Ganga in Unnao later and took a vow to work for the sacred river’s cause for the next two years.”
In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, when the BJP swept Samajwadi Party-ruled UP, winning 73 seats out of the total 80 seats with its ally Apna Dal (Sonelal), Bharti had wrested the Jhansi Lok Sabha seat for the BJP from the Congress, by defeating the 2004 winner Chandra Pal Singh Yadav (SP) by over 1.90 lakh votes.
The seat was retained by the BJP in 2019 and 2024 also, with the ruling party’s nominee Anurag Sharma, winning it by 3.65 lakh and 1.02 lakh votes respectively.
