By IANS,
Bhopal : Former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Uma Bharti, who had vowed to retire to the Himalayas if she was unable to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2008 elections to the state assembly, was Sunday re-nominated president of her Bharatiya Jan Shakti (BJS) party.
Bharti floated the BJS after she was expelled from the BJP in 2005.
A party release said the BJS’s national executive was reconstituted in view of general elections scheduled next year and Bharti has been appointed party president.
Sanghpriya Gautam was appointed working president, Subedar Singh senior vice-president, Ramakant Pande vice-president, Amar Singh, Viveksheel Shukla and Anita Singh were appointed general secretaries, and Sanjay Sharma treasurer.
Bharti, who made strident efforts to defeat the ruling BJP in Madhya Pradesh assembly elections, had declared soon after the poll that her party would function as the political wing of former BJP ideologue Govindacharya’s ‘Rashtriya Swabhiman Aandolan’ (national pride movement).
However, she suffered the ignominy of losing on her home turf Tikamgarh, going down to the Congress’ Yadvendra Singh by a margin of 9,828 votes. However, her party made its debut in the state legislature, winning five of the 215 seats it contested.
Bharti, who pushed her personal appeal and oratory skills to the limit, last month announced that she would “retire” to Kedarnath in the Himalayas if the BJP won in the state.