Unimpressed by Uma Bharati’s show of strength — in ‘‘Dussehra Milan’’ camouflage — in Bhopal yesterday, the BJP high command today ruled out her return as Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh.‘‘There is no proposal for leadership change in MP,’’ BJP general secretary Arun Jaitley said after a meeting of party general secretaries. here. As the meeting, convened to review the poll scene in Bihar, proceeded, developments in MP took over.This is the party high command’s latest rebuff to Uma, whose clout in the party has taken a plunge after the leakage of her letter to RSS sarsanghchalak K.S. Sudarshan. After having targetted two RSS men, BJP general secretary Sanjay Joshi and RSS joint secretary Suresh Soni, in charge of BJP, Bharati cannot expect any help from the Sangh.The signature campaign by her supporters also seems to have fallen through. Her supporters said the memorandum was not sent to Advani. Jaitley reiterated the point after the meeting. ‘‘The party, in its tradition of discipline, does not approve of the mode of a publicly announced signature campaign,’’ he said. The party also did not appreciate Bharati’s attempt at carrying out the exercise in the glare of the media. ‘‘We do not approve of this mode of operating through you,’’ he told reporters.There is, however, no possibility of the high command taking further action against her. As a senior leader put it: ‘‘There is something like the doctrine of proportionality — you can punish somebody in proportion to the crime.’’ Advani has sought a report on the Bhopal developments from the state BJP president Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who has undertaken a damage-control exercise by holding individual meetings with party MLAs. Sources here claimed that contrary to media projections, ‘‘only 41 MLAs had gone to the function and of them, only 25 were aligned with Bharati’’. ‘‘It is not an alarming number in a 172-strong legislature party,’’ they added.Bharati, meanwhile, remained closetted at home through today except for the visit to the party office. She postponed her visit to Bihar by a day, citing illness and the solar eclipse. She, however, met the party’s state in-charge Kailash Joshi whose son visited her earlier in the day.A Congress delegation, meanwhile, met Governor Balram Jakhar and asked him to direct Gaur to convene a special Assembly session and prove his majority as he had lost the ‘‘moral and constitutional right to continue as CM’’.
