New Delhi: Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Uma Bharti said her party does not ‘hold patents’ on Lord Ram, Hanuman or the Hindu religion and that anybody can have faith in them.
"The BJP does not hold patents on Ram and Hanuman or the Hindu religion. Anyone can have faith in them. The difference is that our faith is beyond political gains," news agency PTI quoted the senior leader as saying.
In a statement issued in Bhopal on Friday, Bharti said that the faith in Ram, Hanuman, Ganga or cow was ‘already within her’ and that the party had not inculcated it.
She made the statement while responding to a question on former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath getting a Hanuman temple built in the state.
She had also urged the Lodhi community in Madhya Pradesh that they should “look around" and feel free to vote for any party they like.
Notably, Uma Bharti, one of the party's tallest leaders in Madhya Pradesh, has reportedly been upset over the party leadership sidelining her.
She recently made it to the headlines for throwing stones at a liquor store while demanding a blanket ban on alcohol in the state.
“On her demand for a ban on liquor in the state,” she said.
The senior leader also questioned the purpose of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Yatra.
"But where is Bharat breaking? We (the BJP-led NDA government) have abrogated Article 370 (to end the special status of Jammu and Kashmir). What was breaking the country was Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK). Rahul Gandhi should take this yatra to PoK," Bharti said.
Speaking at a convention of marriageable boys and girls of her community, Uma Bharti had earlier said she was a loyal soldier of the BJP but the people of her community should take a decision on the basis of their own interests.