Date:11/02/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/02/11/stories/2007021104731000.htm

National

Credibility cannot be counted by votes: Uma

Says Vajpayee and Advani are in the grip of power brokers

New Delhi: "Credibility cannot be counted by votes. It can be counted by ideology. If you compromise on ideology, then you lose your credibility," Bharatiya Janshakti chief Uma Bharti said on Saturday.

Speaking to Karan Thapar for CNN-IBN's show, Devil's Advocate, she downplayed her party's loss in the recent by-elections in Madhya Pradesh, insisting that credibility was not dependent on votes.

Almost a year after she formed her own party, she said senior Bharatiya Janata Party leaders A.B. Vajpayee and L.K. Advani "are in the grip of power brokers" and nobody listened to them.

"I love them, I respect them like my father." But "they have been in the grip of power brokers since 2002."

She insisted that her remarks were not personal but political.

Ms. Bharti claimed that the BJP too would lose in the Assembly elections in two States (Punjab and Uttarakhand).

She accused Mr. Advani of immaturity while citing the events that unfolded after she stormed out of a party meeting in 2004.

Ms. Bharti alleged that the then BJP chief had spoken against her in public.