"Call Me Didi Maa": BJP Leader Uma Bharti's 'Renunciation' Twitter Thread

Senior BJP leader Uma Bharti has declared in a series of tweets that she will renounce all ties and will be known only as "Didi Maa".

The fiery politician, one of the most prominent leaders of the Ram Temple movement that catalyzed the BJP's rise in national politics, posted 27 tweets over two days, fueling speculation of her political retirement.

"Jain Muni Acharya Vidyasagar Maharaj has ordered me to renounce all personal relations and names. I should only be called Didi Maa and adopt all the citizens of India to make my Bharti meaningful. The entire world community should be my family," she wrote on Friday.

"I had also decided that on the 30th year of my Sanyas Diksha, I would start obeying his orders. He gave me this instruction on March 17, 2022 by publicly announcing in the presence of all the sages. I free my family members from all bondage and I myself will be free on the 17th. My world and family have become much wider. Now I am Didi Maa of the whole world community, I do not have any personal family," said the saffron-robed politician, who has been a Union Minister and Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh.

In some tweets, she appeared to hint at disenchantment with her own party, BJP.

In a tweet on Saturday, she said: "My family, my brothers, nephews and nieces gave me a lot of support in politics and even staked their own lives. I suffered false cases, harassment and many difficulties in both BJP and Congress rule."

She said in another post: "The highest values given by my parents, the advice of my guru, the dignity of my caste and clan, the ideology of my party and my responsibility to my country, I will never free myself from this."

Uma Bharti has stayed away from active politics for a while. She was last seen targeting liquor shops in Madhya Pradesh in a campaign seeking prohibition in the state.