Uma Bharti

Born On: May 3, 1959
Born In: Tikamgarh, Madhya Pradesh
Career: Politics

Introduction
Uma Bharti is known to be one of the most religious leaders that India as a country has ever witnessed. If at all not one of the most religious leaders, she is definitely a leader with the maximum display of religious rituals. With all her 'teerthyatras' and 'yagyas', she has managed to earn the reputation of a 'sanyasin'. A well known joke within corridors of power goes like this: If there is a problem in the state; Uma Bharti will go and carry out a tapasya instead of sitting in her office and dealing with it. Even though she enjoyed a very short life span as the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, Uma Bharti did not fail to leave her mark in the political realm. It's no wonder then that she is known to be one of the most controversial politicians that the country has ever seen. Read on to know more about the profile and life of Uma Bharti.

Early Life
Uma Bharti was born in the district of Tikamgarh located in Madhya Pradesh. She was born to a very religious Lodhi family of peasants. Right from her childhood she was well versed in Hindu religious texts. She would engage herself in the discourses of Indian epics and mythologies. With such a religious childhood she grew into a very strong believer of Hindu philosophies. Later, when Uma Bharti was in her early twenties, the late Rajmata Vijayaraje Scindia of Gwalior, took her under her wings and raised her into the woman that she is now.

Career
As mentioned above Uma Bharti's political career started under the influence of Rajmata Vijayaraje Scindia in her early twenties where she became a party member of the Bhartiya Janata Party. In 1984, when she was twenty-five years of age, Uma Bharti stood for her first elections in the Parliament. This election did not bring her victory. However, she contested again in 1989 and won a seat from Khajuraho. It was in 1999 when she won a seat from Bhopal, the capital of Madhya Pradesh. After this, during the reign of Atal Bihari Vajpayee as the Prime Minister, Uma Bharti held state level responsibilities over the Human Resource Development, Tourism, Youth Affairs & Sports, and Coal Mines. In the 1992 Ayodhya riots, she played a major role in getting the Babri Masjid demolished with her slogan "Ramlala hum ayenge, mandirwahinbanayenge" meaning: Dear Ramlala we will come and make the temple there itself. Owing to her religious background, it was not very surprising that she did what she did.

In the 2003 elections she was elected as the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh. This was primarily because there was a compulsion that the Chief Minister should have a OBC background, which explains the position of the current Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh. However her tenure lasted only for one year, an arrest warrant issued against her regarding the 1994 Hubli riot case was followed by her losing her position as the Chief Minister. Later she went against Lal Krishna Advani and also was dead against the election of Shivraj Singh Chouhan as the Chief Minister, following which she was forced to leave the BJP. She later founded her own party and named it BJSP, or Bhaitiya Jana Shakti Party. This party was relatively unsuccessful in getting to the primary goals that Uma Bharti had started the party for. With the passing of time, the Indian media dwelled a lot on the return of Uma Bharti to the Bhartiya Janata Party. It was, however, only after six years of leaving the party that Nitin Gadkari, the party president announced her return to the party.

Contributions
As the party member of the BJP, Uma Bharti is using all her resources for the project that is all about cleaning the Ganga River. However, this effort she claims has helped her stay away from the clutches of politics. She is moving from door to door to create awareness and also helping to motivate people to follow her in her efforts to clean the river.

Timeline
1959:Born in Tikamgarh district of Madhya Pradesh.
1984: Contested her first elections to win a seat to the Lok Sabha.
1989: Won her first seat, in Khajuraho.
1992: Highly involved with the Babri Masjid demolition case.
2003: Became the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh.
2004: Lost her post as Chief Minister.
2005: Was expelled from her party.
2011: Returned to the BJP.