Bhopal: BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) leader Uma Bharti today (Sep 18, 2004) asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to step down if he cannot remove 'tainted' ministers including Railway Minister Laloo Yadav.

"If Manmohan Singh can't throw out Laloo Yadav, who is corrupt, he should step down and move away from the gang of corrupt ministers on whom he does not have control," Bharti said at a mammoth public meeting after her Yatra rolled into Bhopal.

"He (Singh) should take a cue from former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee who removed Muthaiyya after charges of allegations of corruption were levelled against him," she said.

Bharti vowed to wipe out what she called "a fake and foreign Congress" by coverting her Tiranga Yatra into a mass movement.

Instead of punishing the tainted ministers, under the Congress-led UPA (United Progressive Alliance) rule at the Centre, "Laloo is given rail and Uma, who fights for tricolour's honour, gets jail," Bharti quipped.

Claiming that 'Tiranga Yatra' was no longer her baby, the BJP leader signalled that it would get transformed into a wider movement after it reaches Jalianwalah bagh and end tyranny of the Congress.

"Overwhelming response to the Yatra shows that its no longer Uma Bharti's Yatra. After it reaches Jalianwalahbag, the tri-colour campaign would get converted into a movement and bring an end to the foreign and fake Congress," she said.

She accused Congress of adopting double standards by creating a communal divide for political gains.

Congress has been misleading people by sending a message that the tri-colour does not belong to Muslims, Bharti alleged adding they have made communal issues out of census figures, cow slaughter, Savarkar, Vande Mataram and Saraswati Vandana.

"While the tri-colour was made an issue to target me, Congress leader and former Chief Minister Digvijay Singh had withdrawn cases against the persons who had burnt the national flag on January 26, 1992," the BJP leader alleged.

Bharti said Congress president Sonia Gandhi should not be allowed to become the Prime Minister, though she is married to a great family of politicians.

Stating that she had not undertaken Yatra to spread message on patriotism - which was abundant among countrymen, the BJP leader said she was out to make the tri-colour the "number one flag."

Questioning Congress using colours of the national flag in its party flag, Bharti said she would request party president Venkaiah Naidu and general secretary Arun Jaitley to move the apex court for setting up a code of conduct for the tri-colour.

"I take a pledge from this Dussehra Maidan that I would snatch the colours from Congress flag. No political parties should bear those colours in their party flags," she declared.

Assuring the people of Madhya Pradesh good roads, power and water, as promised by her during electioneering, the former Chief Minister said, "I had resigned from the post to save honour of the tri-colour. But I have not resigned from responsibilities."