Uma Bharti

Uma Bharti (Born 3 May 1959 in Dunda, Tikamgarh District in the state of Madhya Pradesh) is an Indian religious & politician leader; currently presiding as cabinet minister for water resources, river development and Ganga rejuvenation in the Union Government of India.

As a child, she held her interest in religious texts like the Bhagvad Gita which led to her being seen as a “spiritual” child. She began to give religious discourses while still a child.

Uma Bharti became involved with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at a very young age. In 1989, she successfully contested the Khajuraho seat, and retained it in elections conducted in 1991, 1996 and 1998. In 1999, she switched constituencies and won the Bhopal seat. Uma Bharati held various state-level and cabinet-level portfolios in the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Tourism, Youth Affairs & Sports, and Coal & Mines during the second as well as third ministry of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Uma Bharti was one of the most prominent leaders in the Ram Janmabhoomi movement of the 1980s and 1990s.
In the 2003 Assembly polls, she led the BJP to a three-fourths majority in the Madhya Pradesh Vidhan Sabha. She defeated her Congress opponent from the Malehra seat by a 25% margin.
Bharti was appointed the Chief ministerial candidate of the BJP for the 2003 Assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh.