The anti-Uma Bharti camp claims she was brought in by BJP president Nitin Gadkari to “clip the wings of the established leadership in the state”.
It was learnt that leaders like Ms Swaraj, Mr Rajnath Singh and Mr Kalraj Mishra wanted the projection of an upper-caste leader to strengthen its grip on the community. With the OBC vote-bank emerging as the key to electoral success, Mr Gadkari changed tack and played the backward card.
A party leader opposing Ms Bharti claimed she “virtually bullied” Mr Gadkari into giving her a nomination as she managed to get only one of the 57 candidates she wanted tickets for. It was also claimed that at this juncture the “majority of the senior state leaders were not cooperating with Ms Bharti” and she has “no team”. It was also pointed out to Mr Gadkari that Ms Bharti called off her statewide yatra midway as it “failed” to draw crowds.