Unwilling to directly blame the Narendra Modi government at the Centre and the Pushkar Singh Dhami and Yogi Adityanath dispensations in Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh for the unclean Ganga, BJP leader Uma Bharati has restarted her independent campaign to clean up the holy river.

The BJP national vice-president also expressed her wish to contest the 2029 Lok Sabha elections from Jhansi.

She took a bath in the Ganga at Sangam in Allahabad on Tuesday along with over 2,000 people and pledged to clean it with the help of the common man.

“I administered an oath to the people that they will work to make the Ganga clean and uninterrupted. It is not a one-day programme. All those who attended today’s (Tuesday) event must work continuously wherever they are,” she said in Allahabad while claiming that she herself has decided not to take up any assignment because she wanted to devote her time to the Ganga and cows.

The Modi government had launched the Namami Gange project soon after becoming Prime Minister. Since then, Modi and Adityanath have claimed on several occasions that they have cleaned the Ganga.

Bharati was the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh in 2003-04 and the Union minister of water resources, river development and Ganga rejuvenation from 2014 to 2017. While she launched a massive campaign to clean the river, her portfolio was changed to drinking water and sanitation in 2017. She headed the ministry till 2019, before she was dropped from the Modi cabinet.