"I don't understand what you are saying," was former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's light-hearted response when asked whether the decision to expel Uma Bharti from the Bharatiya Janata Party was taken with a heavy heart.

Vajpayee made the remark as he was coming out of the BJP central Parliamentary board meeting, which decided on the former Madhya Pradesh chief minister's fate.

Once considered to have a soft corner for the fiery sanyasin, Vajpayee had termed her actions at the state legislature party meeting in Bhopal last Monday as the 'height of indiscipline'.

His statement emboldened the party to suspend her on November 30 and issue show cause notice to her. In turn, Bharti advised him not to become a pilot in the cockpit of an aircraft who can be hijacked at gunpoint.

Interestingly, it was after Vajpayee made his displeasure clear over Delhi strongman Madan Lal Khurana's suspension in September that the party revoked it. At that time, the former prime minister had stated that the former Delhi chief minister should have been given an opportunity to explain his stand.

However, in Bharti's case, Vajpayee appears to be fully with the party leadership, not only by publicly slamming Bharti but also endorsing Shivraj Singh Chouhan's nomination as Madhya Pradesh chief minister with his presence at the swearing-in ceremony.