BHOPAL: Former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Uma Bharti will renounce all personal and familial ties from November 17, which marks the completion of three decades of her sanyas. The saffron-clad former Union minister, who was one of the prominent leaders of BJP’s Ram temple movement, on Friday posted a series of 17 tweets to make announcements about her reaching the milestone.
Bharti, however, did not mention anything about quitting politics, and mentioned in one of the tweets that she isn’t detaching herself from the ideology of her party (BJP) and will keep serving the nation.
Known as Didi in the ruling BJP circles, the firebrand politician wrote, “November 17, 2022 will mark 30 years of my sanyas, which I took at Amarkantak on the same day in 1992. The Jain saint Vidyasagar Maharaj (my current guru) asked me on March 17, 2022 to turn into Didi Maa for the world. His wishes will be fulfilled on November 17.”
Bharti added that in line with the Jain seer’s wishes, she was renouncing all family and personal bonds.“I free my kin from all bondings with me and will detach myself from them on November 17. Since then I’ll be Didi Maa for entire world family (sic),” Bharti tweeted.Her closest family members include her brother’s family, including her nephew Rahul Singh Lodhi, who is the sitting BJP MLA from Khargapur seat in Tikamgarh district of MP.
The 63-year-old leader, who had guided the party to a historic win in MP in 2003 polls after 10 years of Congress government, did not contest the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, citing health reasons.She has been waging a drive for total alcohol ban in MP, often causing embarrassment to her own party’s government led by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who has been advocating public campaigns against alcohol and drug abuse, instead of total liquor ban.
Reacting to Bharti’s tweets, state Congress spokesperson Narendra Saluja reminded her about her pledge to tour the state from November 7 to January 14, 2023, and stay in tents for campaigning against liquor. “How shall your new schedule be interpreted, have you taken u-turn on your crusade for liquor free MP or struck a compromise with the government on the issue,” he tweeted.