NEW DELHI, 11 November 2004 — Former Madhya Pradesh chief minister and firebrand leader Uma Bharati was removed as the general secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) yesterday. Her primary party membership was also suspended for six years.

Announcing the decision at a press conference, senior party leaders Jaswant Singh and Arun Jaitley told reporters: “At this morning’s meeting, on account of the conduct of Uma Bharati, all office-bearers recommended to the president that Bharati should no longer continue as general secretary and also be expelled from the party. Accordingly, the decision was taken.”

The expulsion of the senior politician plunged the party deeper into disarray.

The BJP, which ruled the country for six years until May, suspended general secretary Uma Bharati after she walked out of a political conclave in a huff to protest an alleged political conspiracy to discredit her.

BJP president Lal Krishna Advani, former Premier Atal Behari Vajpayee and ex-Finance Minister Jaswant Singh were visibly stunned as the saffron-clad Bharati berated them in full public view at the crowded party meeting, witnesses said.

Advani had just begun his speech asserting that indiscipline would not be tolerated in the party when Bharati interrupted and started accusing some of the party members of conspiring against her.

“There are four or five people in this hall who do the off-the-record briefings (against me) which appear as newspaper headlines...” Bharati screamed before walking out of the conclave, which was called to take disciplinary action against errant members.

The firebrand Bharati had been at the center of bitter squabbling for power in the upper echelons of the BJP until Nov. 4 when its leadership finally named her as party general secretary, superseding several other hopefuls for the plum post.

Jaswant later said Bharati, who until recently was BJP chief minister of the country’s largest state Madhya Pradesh, had been suspended from the party’s primary membership for six years because of her conduct.

Bharati had enjoyed the BJP’s total confidence since 1992 when she along with some others directed an explosive campaign to replace an ancient mosque with a temple.

The mosque’s destruction in the northern town of Ayodhya 12 years ago triggered off one of India’s bloodiest Hindu-Muslim riots but created an unbeatable Hindu vote bank for the BJP.

The Hindu nationalists first took power in 1996 and after a two-year political hibernation returned in 1998. They were ousted from office by Sonia Gandhi’s Congress party and its allies following April-May elections this year.

— Additional input from agencies