Search the Internet           Tips

I was in love with Govindacharya, says Uma Bharti

Bharatiya Janata Party firebrand leader and former Union minister Uma Bharti says she was in love with her senior party colleague K N Govindacharya and wanted to marry him.

"Yes, I was in love with him. I wanted to marry him. I used to chase him everywhere and I feel that he also loved me though he never told me so," Bharti was quoted as having said so in an interview to The Week magazine in its latest issue.

Although Govindacharya never told her about his love, he had revealed his feelings to party leader L K Advani and former Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh supremo Bhaurao Devras, Bharti said.

"Bhaurao advised me that I should not marry for the sake of the masses and the country. So I gave up the idea," she said.

Asked whether she ever had a crush on anybody before taking 'sanyas' at the age of 16, Bharti said, "Yes, many. Now all those people are happily married. I am not going to name them. All of them were from the elite. I was an innocent flirt."

Denying that she was highly ambitious, she said that if that was so she would not have quit her ministerial post.

"There are more ambitious people in the party than me. I am not happy with the way the media has portrayed me. I am a 24 carat person."

Asked why she chose a self-imposed exile in Kedarnath, Bharti said she wanted to run away from the crowd and moreover she was in search of a place where she could think and rethink.

"This is one of the most divine places on earth, the abode of Lord Shiva, and I am a Shiv bhakt. Here I feel that I am communicating with Mahadev. Whatever decision I will take here, there will be no change in them."

She is still undecided about withdrawing resignation from Lok Sabha saying "Atalji spoke to me a short while ago. He says that my exile is not suiting him. I will talk to BJP leaders after the Dussehra festival."

Replying to a question about her wish in life, Bharti said, "I want to spend time in a small house by the side of a river with dogs, cows and birds. I like the company of animals and birds. I should also have a Maruti."

Tell us what you think of this report