Uma Bharti says she won't contest the next Lok Sabha polls scheduled in 2019. She is the second Union Minister to announce after Sushma Swaraj.
Uma Bharti is the Union Minister for Drinking Water and Sanitation and is one of the senior most members in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). She cited knee and back issues, however she said she would continue to campaign for the BJP.
Bharti also said that she would focus on Ram temple and Ganga for next one and a half years. She has taken this move after the BJP's mentor Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh (RSS) also pushed for the government to issue an ordinance on the Ram Temple.
Uma Bharti has seen tough patches in her career. She grew popular during the Ram Janmabhoomi movement, and was present in the rally at Ayodhya that eventually run riot. She became a cabinet member of the Vajpayee administration.
Uma Bharti was the Chief Minister candidate in Madhya Pradesh polls in 2003, the party won. However she had to quit as CM a year later after an arrest warrant was issued against her for 1994 Hubli riots. In 2004, Bharti had a tiff with then BJP president L.K. Advani and she demanded to be Madhya Pradesh CM again. This didn't go well with the party bosses and led to her suspension.
She started her own party with the blessing of the RSS, but it never found success. In 2011, Uma Bharti was reinstated into the BJP.
The current BJP boss Amit Shah and Uma Bharti worked together during the 2014 General elections in Uttar Pradesh, she has held several positions in the current Modi cabinet.
~ The Pigeon Express Views
Uma Bharti and Sushma Swaraj are the only two senior women folk in the cabinet. It's obvious once they are out of the Government and stop taking responsibility their value in the party deteriorates.
Why am I saying this? because leaders like L K Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and Jaswant Singh the founding members of the BJP were sidelined after the Gujarat duo took over.
The older faces that remain in the party since are just Rajnath Singh and Arun Jaitley. It won't take time for BJP to pack these two home too.