The firebrand Bharatiya Janata Party leader Uma Bharati is again in the news as the party has put her up as its candidate from Madhya Pradesh capital Bhopal.

Uma who was representing Khajuraho in the dissolved Lok Sabha had declined to contest this time round on health grounds. However, the actual reason reportedly was the decline in the margin with which she had been winning from the constituency.

The margin had declined from 31.88 per cent in 1989 when she first won the seat to 20.15 per cent in 1996 and to 12.2 per cent in 1998. She was also unsure of the cooperation of the party cadres as, according to reports, she had alienated a sizeable section of them.

Antagonising people seems to be in the nature of Uma. As minister of state for youth affairs and sports, she picked up a quarrel with her senior minister and former party president Murali Manohar Joshi and stopped attending office. She resumed work only when the Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee gave herindependent charge of the departments.

This time too, she has estranged her mentor and senior leader Kailash Joshi who himself was an aspirant for the ticket. Even party president Kushabhau Thakre was against fielding her from Bhopal but former party president and home minister LK Advani and Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's intervention got her the prestigious seat she desired.

Winning the first round at the party level, she has to face formidable rivals now which are former union ministers Suresh Pachauri of Congress and Aslam Sher Khan of Nationalist Congress Party.

Dinesh Chandra