Bharti, one of the handful of mass leaders in the party credited with its landslide victory in Madhya Pradesh and recently in Bihar, was suspended by the BJP Central Parliamentary Board for "her conduct and statements" in the wake of the recent leadership change in Madhya Pradesh.

Chaired by party President LK Advani, the Board meeting was attended among others by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

"The attention of the Board was drawn to her conduct and statements over the last few days and it was of the opinion that these constituted anti-party activity. It was decided to suspend her from the primary membership of the party. A show cause notice would be served to her with three days time to respond as to why she should not be expelled from the party," BJP General Secretary Arun Jaitley said in a brief statement after a short 20 minute meeting of the Board.

Refusing to accept the Board's nomination of Shivraj Singh Chauhan as the next Chief Minister, Bharti had on Monday stormed out of the state BJP legislature party meeting in Bhopal with 13 loyalist MLAs even as her supporters indulged in violence outside. Addressing reporters yesterday, she went ballistic charging all senior leaders including Advani with violating party discipline and began a Padyatra to Ayodhya.

Bharti was suspended from the party last November also after she dared Advani to take action against her at a meeting of party's Central Office bearers.

Bharti's suspension was revoked a month later after she apologised for "hurting" Advani.

A protege of late Vijayaraje Scindia, the firebrand leader has been closely associated with the BJP since the Ram Janambhoomi movement and is an accused in the Babri Mosque demolition case along with Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi.

A favourite of the Sangh Parivar, the RSS had exerted pressure on BJP for revoking her suspension last year but this time around it has distanced itself from her after she targeted its Joint General Secretary Suresh Soni.