She wasn't invited or even missed at the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) leadership conclave here, but Uma Bharati might just get a reprieve with party chief L.K. Advani hinting at a rapprochement.

Hinting that reconciliation might be on the cards, party president Advani said talks would take place as soon as the suspended Uma Bharati returned from her vacation in the hills.

"She has gone on leave. As and when she comes back, talks will take place," Advani told reporters here Friday, the last day of the party's three-day national executive meeting.

Stating that no party member had raised the issue of her suspension, he confirmed that he had received a few letters from her in which he said he saw a "desire to discuss things with me".

Bharati wrote a letter to the Hindi daily Hindustan Friday, saying only Advani and former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee understood the issues close to her heart -- that of building a grand Ram temple in Ayodhya and providing bread to every Indian.

She, however, called herself a "misfit" in politics, which she had entered by mistake.

But it was the maverick leader, touted as one of the biggest crowd-pullers in the party, who had led the party to victory in the assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh in December 2003.

The former Madhya Pradesh chief minister was no more than a phantom at this meeting of the national executive, the party's highest policy making forum.

"Uma didn't figure at any of the sessions. There has been no discussion on her expulsion or any other issue related to her," senior BJP leader Bandaru Dattatreya told IANS.

Leader after leader evaded questions on Uma Bharati, who was suspended from party membership and stripped of her post as general secretary earlier this month after a temper tantrum at a party meeting which was broadcast live over television.

Some leaders even went to the extent of saying that the party's "creditable" performance in the Madhya Pradesh municipal bodies elections, results of which were announced Thursday, was due to her absence.

The party won eight of the 11 municipal bodies and a leader said: "The elections turned in our favour as there was no intra-party feuding."

BJP spokesman Arun Jaitley said the credit went to all the party workers. "I would not like to comment on that," he replied to a question on whether Uma Bharati had any positive impact on the election outcome.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Babulal Gaur described the victory as "exceedingly good" and a result of reaching out to the grassroots of the society.

Uma Bharati, 44, had been suspended after she walked out of a meeting convened by Advani, accusing some of her colleagues of indulging in a vilification campaign against her through the media.

Accusing the English media of poking fun at her private and public life, she noted that the same media took pains to guard the privacy of Congress president Sonia Gandhi's daughter Priyanka Gandhi.

"Why do you criticise me so bitterly," she asked.

--Indo-Asian News Service