New Delhi:
Uma Bharti has been reinducted into the BJP today.
(Read: Who is Uma Bharti?)Party president Nitin Gadkari was seated next to the controversial sanyasin at a press conference today where he announced that she will be asked to help revive the BJP in Uttar Pradesh ahead of the state's elections next year.
Later, Ms Bharti had lunch with party patriarch LK Advani. In 2004, it was her outburst against Advani, on television, that propelled the slide in her fortunes within the party. It would eventually lead to her ouster from the party the next year.
Ms Bharti was expelled for indiscipline and for defying the BJP's central leadership in December 2005. She then launched her own party -- the Bharatiya Janshakti Party -which had virtually no impact on voters.
Ms Bharti was upset about being removed as Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh and made repeated attempts to challenge the authority of Shivraj Singh Chouhan who was appointed to head the state government at the end of 2005.
She has also served as a union minister in the NDA government.
Earlier this month, BJP President Nitin Gadkari had confirmed that the party was discussing whether to allow Ms Bharti to return to its fold.
Ms Bharti was a key face of the BJP's Ram Mandir movement in Ayodhya - she was present when the Babri Mosque was demolished on December 6, 1992. Recent court judgements on whether the land where the mosque stood belonged to Hindus or Muslims in the area have revived interest in and debate on the Ayodhya case - one of India's most complex and challenging issues.
The party wants to capitalize on the fact that she's an OBC (Other Backward Castes) leader.