The Bharatiya Janata Party has denied a news item put out by a news agency that Uma Bharti has been asked to return to Madhya Pradesh as chief minister in place of Babulal Gaur, who took over the reigns of the party in 2004 following Bharti's resignation after a Karnataka court issued summons against her in a case.

Speaking to rediff.com, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, one of the vice presidents of the party, said that the story has been put out with a mischievous motive by the concerned reporter.

• Uma Bharti to return as Madhya Pradesh CM

"Arun Jaitley, the party general secretary, has already denied the story. Let me put the record straight for you. No decision was taken about Bharti at the meeting of the party general secretaries held under the chairmanship of Lal Kishenchand Advani, the party president, on Saturday," Naqvi said.

He also added that this issue was not even mentioned in the meeting and hence, there was no reason for taking a decision about whether to send Bharti back to Madhya Pradesh as the chief minister or not.

The agency which put out the story got frantic calls from television networks wanting to know if the story was correct until Jaitley denied the contents of the story.