CM Shivraj visits Uma Bharti, touches her feet

Bhopal, Feb 27 BJP's firebrand Hindutva leader and former Union Minister Uma Bharti on Monday welcomed Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan at her official residence here.

Bharti welcomed Shivraj by offering flowers and applying 'tilak' on his forehead.

Chouhan, who addresses her as 'Didi', touched Bharti's feet to seek her blessings indicating that all is now well between these two senior BJP leaders and that they will together take on the opposition Congress during the Assembly polls due later this year.

"For the first time after the new excise policy, I welcomed Shivraj ji at my home and congratulated him on behalf of women power for making Madhya Pradesh a model state in the entire country in excise policy," Bharti wrote in official twitter handle.

The move came after Chouhan announced the closure of 'ahatas' or taverns attached to liquor outlets and shop bars in Madhya Pradesh. The state government has also decided that liquor shops located close to educational institutions, religious places etc. will be shifted to distant locations.

Hours after state Home Minister Narottam Mishra had briefed the press about the Cabinet's decision to introduce a new liquor policy last Sunday, Bharti took Twitter to express her happiness, terming the announcement as "historic and revolutionary".

Notably, Bharti was criticising her own party's government over its liquor policy. The Chief Minister has made this announcement ahead of the upcoming Assembly polls, creating an impression that the new policy came after Bharti's sustained campaign against the earlier liquor policy.

The veteran BJP leader, who stepped down from the Narendra Modi government in 2018 citing health reasons ahead of a Cabinet reshuffle, returned to Madhya Pradesh last year after spending months on a campaign for clean Ganga.

Many political observers feel that Bharti, a former Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, is making an effort to regain her space in state politics.