Regional satraps like Mamata Banerjee and Nitish Kumar emerged on the political firmament with BJP and RSS support without which they would not remain strong for long, Union Minister Uma Bharti has said.

The senior BJP leader also said the country is already on course to become 'Congress mukt' (free from Congress) and that the party's dipping fortunes could be attributed to it having remained "captive to a family".

In an interview to news agency PTI, Bharti, who had trashed the possibility of Sonia Gandhi becoming the prime minister in 2004, said she has "love and respect" for her on a personal level but Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi "does not exist" in her mind.