This is how the venue of Bharatiya Janata Party's meeting in New Delhi on Wednesday looked as party president Lal Kishenchand Advani and former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee took their seats.

Uma Bharti was smiling and so was former finance minister Jaswant Singh.

But just minutes later Bharti had plunged the party into one of its most serious crises since it lost power earlier this year and Singh was left to do the damage control.

Uma suspended from party

Photograph : Ranjan Basu/Saab Press