Thousands of eyes gaze at the helicopter in the blazing summer sky. It descends in a swirling arc, sending up dust clouds before it settles down smoothly. The noise, dust and motor die out, but for a few agonising minutes the person the huge crowd has been waiting for does not come out. Then, swathed in saffron, a red tikka emblazoned on her forehead, she alights with an unmistakable sense of drama to be immediately engulfed by a sea of garlands and cheers. The people have reposed their faith in a sanyasin to take on the longest ruling chieftain in north India in a battle that promises much thunder and theatrics over the next six months.

THE SANYASIN HAS LANDED: Bharati flies high in her mission to build a mass base

Uma Bharati has the charisma and the uncanny ability to turn conventional politics on its head-qualities that are required to take on the wily Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh who has moulded Indira Gandhi's Congress into a reflection of his own. Though Kailash Joshi remains the state BJP chief, it is Bharati who is single-handedly spearheading the party campaign in the state in much the same way that Narendra Modi did in Gujarat. There is one crucial difference though; unlike Modi, she is not the chief minister, just the BJP's candidate for the post. And as in Gujarat, Hindutva is the great thrust forward and the political stakes are so high that a loss would mean certain political oblivion for her and a major setback to the BJP's efforts to retain power at the Centre next year. Her success would depend heavily on whether she is able to convert the state BJP into the BJP(Uma) to take on the Congress(Digvijay). "Right now my priority and brief is to convert the BJP into a cohesive unit ready for war,'' she says. She is being helped along by the high command which has sanctioned a chopper and by BJP Vice-President Gopinath Munde who has presented her with a rath. But she knows her armoury will have to be her own.

Since elections are at least six months away, Bharati is not strictly on the campaign trail. She does not have a campaign agenda. Neither does she have a candidate to project in each constituency. Hers is purely a mass-contact programme. The chopper hired by the party's central unit comes in handy since it allows her to get to as many places as possible to project herself as the next chief minister. There is a queue to board the chopper, but with four private engineers and pilots on board, there is little space for anyone else that she would like to take along. The exception is the local MP of the constituency she happens to be touring at the time.

Bharati's connection with people is instantaneous. She can be very charming in a coy sort of way, cracking jokes with her followers even as she sizes up dissidence within the ranks wherever she visits. At every wayside meeting, she asks her followers, "If I give up my duties here and retire to Badrinath or Kedarnath, what will happen?" The party workers, of course, paint a picture of despair. The question, it seems, is as much to convince herself as the workers. And the issues she raises range from development (power, water and roads) to voters lists and corruption within the bureaucracy, which she says has been actively encouraged by Digvijay. "There will be no dearth of issues. By the time elections are announced, Digvijay will have given us some more."

Three years ago, Bharati had been laughed out of Bhopal by a combination of her own party men and Digvijay's irresistible realpolitik. Propelled by her massive parliamentary mandate and a burning desire to topple Digvijay, she made crucial miscalculations. The factions within the BJP saw to it that she did not corner all the glory of a fight for justice, and the petty factionalism that ensued so infuriated her that she headed straight for the hills. For two years she stayed out of the picture. Then her bete noire Sunderlal Patwa faded into oblivion following a paralytic stroke, state BJP president Vikram Verma was shifted to the Centre and septuagenarian Joshi was installed, making way for her return.

Meanwhile, the crafty Diggy Raja has pulled a coup of sorts by poaching in Bharati's family. Her brother, MLA Swami Lodhi, has been hobnobbing with the chief minister, receiving Sonia Gandhi at the airport and reciting the Ramayana in Digvijay's burrow of Raghogarh. "If she can't keep her brother in control, how will she lead an important campaign?'' is the refrain of Digvijay's campaign managers.

But Bharati does not seem perturbed. "Lodhi is my elder brother and I know how to deal with the situation," she says. "The unfortunate thing is that Digvijay always attempts to break families. He has done that to the Shuklas in Chhattisgarh and it is hardly surprising if he is attempting the same here. What does it say about him?'' But it cannot be denied that Digvijay has earned brownie points by getting Lodhi to desert the family hearth.

Bharati's elevation has caused a spurt in Hindutva activities. VHP International General Secretary Pravin Togadia is as familiar a face in Madhya Pradesh as in Gujarat. His frequent forays have raised the Bhojshala in Dhar from the dead. There have also been riots over the issue of cow slaughter and the BJP has not been as aggressive on any issue in the past nine years as it has been over the alleged manipulation of voters lists.

It is no less creditable for Digvijay that he has countered each of these rather successfully. The cow campaign took on a Digvijay-coloured soft Hindutva line, the Bhojshala was not allowed to develop into anything resembling Godhra and the chief minister has steadfastly refused to suspend the collectors over the voters list scandal even after directives from the Election Commission. For Bharati, these should be lessons in political science from a man in complete control. She has begun to manoeuvre the boat back to developmental issues such as bijli, paani and sadak where Digvijay has much to answer for.

The power of saffron and the almost hysterical following that renunciation evokes in rural areas are adding vim to Bharati's forays into various constituencies. An electorate deprived of basic infrastructural amenities and economic development responds immediately but things do change and six months can sometimes be a lifetime in politics. Bharati has already covered 35 of the 230 constituencies on her chopper, and will cover the rest over the next couple of months on her rath. "This is the primary survey. It has given me a pulse and I will build on it in the final run,'' she says.

She knows the semi-final where she is expected to beat Digvijay is perhaps tougher than the final, that is, the general elections next year. If she loses, Digvijay will emerge as the brightest star on the firmament, capable of outshining Atal Bihari Vajpayee, L.K. Advani and Sonia in 2004. Naturally cautious, Bharati assiduously avoids discussing camp politics but says that if her opinion is sought on tickets she will not oppose anyone who has a winning chance irrespective of which camp he or she belongs to. "Too often we have been accused of contriving to lose a winning election. Himachal is a glaring example,'' she says. After a series of debacles, the BJP leadership can only hope that Bharatitva works the way Moditva did.