After a falling-out with the BJP, she established her own political party for a while before returning to the fold and being elected as a Member of the Legislative Assembly in the state of Uttar Pradesh.

[1] Uma Bharti was born on 3 May 1959 in Dunda, Tikamgarh District in the state of Madhya Pradesh to a family of peasants, belonging to the Lodhi caste.

[2] In December 1992, she was one of several prominent Sangh Parivar figures present at a rally in Ayodhya that developed into a riot, culminating in the demolition of the Babri Mosque.

[7] She has also denied the presence of any conspiracy by the Sangh, while stating that she does not regret the demolition, as it furthers the goal of building a Ram Mandir there.

She became a cabinet member of the Vajpayee administration, and held various state- and cabinet-level portfolios, being those for Human Resource Development, Tourism, Youth Affairs and Sports, and finally Coal and Mines.

On the back of a fierce campaign based on a platform of development, and helped along by her reputation as a Hindutva firebrand, she led the party to a sweeping victory in which it won 173 out of 230 seats in the legislature.

[2] In August 2004, after only a year in office, an arrest warrant was issued against Bharti in connection with the 1994 Hubli riots,[clarification needed] forcing her resignation.

This led to a suspension from the BJP, which was revoked a few months later at the insistence of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a Hindu nationalist social service volunteer organisation.

[1] She continued to publicly defy the BJP high command, insisting that she replace Shivraj Singh Chouhan as the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, which led to several show-cause notices from the party, and eventually, to her expulsion.

[16][17] Subsequently, she was appointed to the position of party vice-president along with twelve others, as part of a team created to guide the BJP through the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

[21] Uma Bharti donated one month of her salary to support the welfare of families of Central Reserve Police Force personnel murdered in the 2019 Pulwama attack perpetrated by a Kashmiri militant against the Indian Army.