Uma Bharti Politician
Uma Bharti (born: 3 May 1959), is an Indian politician and cabinet minister for water resources, river development and Ganga rejuvenation in the union government of India. Raised by Vijaya Raje Scindia of Gwalior, she became involved with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at a very young age, unsuccessfully contesting her first Parliamentary elections in 1984. In 1989, she successfully contested the Khajuraho seat, and retained it in elections conducted in 1991, 1996 and 1998. In 1999, she switched constituencies and won the Bhopal seat. In the Vajpayee Administration, she held various state-level and cabinet-level portfolios of Human Resource Development, Tourism, Youth Affairs & Sports, and finally Coal & Mines. She is occasionally given the honorific "sadhvi" on account of being a renouncer.Bharti was one of the most prominent leaders of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement of the 1980s and 1990s organised by the BJP and the Vishva Hindu Parishad. She was present at the demolition of the Babri Masjid, and was later indicted by the Liberhan Commission for her role in the incident.In the 2003 Assembly polls, she led the BJP to a three-fourths majority in the Madhya Pradesh assembly. She defeated her Congress opponent from the Malehra seat by a 25% margin. She resigned from the post of Chief Minister in August 2004, when an arrest warrant was issued against her regarding the 1994 Hubli riot case.
