From correspondents in Delhi, India, 12:32 PM IST

Bharatiya Janshakti Party chief Uma Bharti, once a major figure of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has compared the condition of BJP veterans Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L.K. Advani to that of elderly 'widows', who are paid obeisance to by everybody 'but nobody listens to them'.

In an interview to Karan Thapar for his programme 'Devils' Advocate', Bharti said Vajpayee and Advani were 'in the grip of power brokers'.

Uma said: 'Everybody touches their feet but nobody listens to them (Advani and Vajpayee). I love them. I respect them, but this is reality. I love them like my father but they're in the grip of power brokers, and they've been in the grip of power brokers since 2002.

'I feel so sorry for those ladies who live in their old age as widows in their parents' home and everybody touches their feet but nobody listens to them. Right now this is the condition of Atalji and Advaniji. Nobody listens to them.'

In the interview, to be telecast on CNN-IBN on Sunday, Bharti denied making any personal insinuations or allegations against the two octogenarian leaders and clarified: 'This is not a personal remark. They are in the grip of power brokers. What's personal in that? It's a political remark. Comparing Sonia Gandhi to Monica Lewinsky is a personal remark. That was a personal remark made by our venerable general secretary (late Pramod Mahajan in 1999). Making fun of Sushma Swaraj is a personal remark.'

The Bharatiya Janshakti Party chief also described Advani as 'immature'. She denied that she had been immature in walking out of the BJP last year.

In reply to a question, she said: 'I think the immature behaviour was on the part of Advani. Advani should have taken care of the fact that he was condemning me for speaking against a colleague in media but he was doing the same thing. He was speaking against me in the media. So he was not practising what he was preaching.'

Bharti declared that in 2015 'we will form the government on our own'. 'The Janshakti will have the government and we will have a prime minister of the Janshakti Party.'

Asked if she would be the prime minister, she said: 'I can't say. I don't know who will be the prime minister. Janshakti will be spread to the level that we will be able to make the government at the centre and Janshakti will have its own prime minister in the country.'

Bharti said she was not worried that her party may not win many seats in the Punjab and Uttarakhand assembly elections, adding the 'BJP used to lose its deposit in the Jan Sangh days for 30 years. This is how you begin. Jan Sangh and BJP used to lose their deposit for almost 30 years. So when we're fighting in Punjab and Uttarakhand I don't claim we're going to win all the seats.'

She also dismissed the suggestion that her party lost credibility because of losing badly in the recent by-elections in Madhya Pradesh. According to her, 'credibility cannot be counted by votes. It can be counted by ideology. If you compromise on ideology then you lose credibility'.

(Staff Writer, © IANS)