Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Sushma Swaraj said Saturday that former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Uma Bharti was "in very high spirits and determined to remain in jail as long as the state government wants her to be".
After meeting Bharti at the Karnataka Agriculture University Guest House, which has been converted into a temporary jail, Swaraj told reporters Bharti told her that she was happy in jail and had no complaints whatsoever though she was running a little temperature and not feeling well.
"I was very happy and relaxed to know her condition", said Swaraj, who was accompanied by state BJP President Ananth Kumar, former chief minister S Bangarappa and senior state leader B S Yediyurappa.
Stressing that the case against Bharti was 'false', Swaraj said as the BJP started pursuing the campaign vehemently "the mind of Sonia worked and she told her law minister to dig out all cases against BJP and NDA leaders".
"But Sonia Gandhi could not differentiate between criminal offence and national movement", she said.
On Karnataka Chief Minister N Dharam Singh's reported statement that the matter was now between court and Uma Bharti, Swaraj said it was not correct, noting that the district and sessions court had said that the government had the liberty to move the judical magistrate citing fresh grounds in dropping cases against Uma Bharti.
"Dharam Singh is acting under pressure from Sonia Gandhi and I pity him", Swaraj said.
Meanwhile, Ananth Kumar said the BJP had convened a state-level session and emergency meeting in Bangalore on Sunday to chalk out an agitation strategy till the government withdrew the cases against Bharti and others.
It will be attended by party President M Venkaiah Naidu, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and Ved Prakash Goyal, in charge of party affairs in the state.
From September 1 the BJP will launch a satyagraha in Bangalore which will be led by the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha L K Advani. Party MPs from Gujarat as well as a team of BJP leaders from Gujarat will also participate besides 25,000 party workers from the state.
Later, addressing a public meeting and flagging off the "Rashtra Dwaj Gourav Yatra" in Hubli, Swaraj said the BJP was ready to hoist the national flag in the country and resort to jail bharo chanting "Vande Mataram".
She accused Sonia Gandhi of insulting revolutionary Veer Savarkar, who spent 28 years in jail.
"By filing the case for hoisting national flag against Uma Bharti, people are asking if India has ceased to become a free country," Swaraj said.
She said leaders like Murli Manohar Joshi, Rajnath Singh, Kalyan Singh and herself, among others, would participate in the 'satyagraha'.
Earlier, she said the BJP was not trying to politicise the matter as it was the Congress led government in Karnataka, which by seeking to reopen the case against Bharti, had given the issue to BJP.
"We are not creating the issue," Swaraj said, adding, "there is nothing wrong if the issue gives advantage to the party in the political field."
"The public would decide whether it is an issue or not."
As part of the yatra, two teams, one led by Ananth Kumar and another by
Yediyurappa would address rallies in different parts of the state demanding that the cases against Bharti be withdrawn.
