Travelling by the Hazrat Nizamuddin-Vasco Goa Express which she boarded at Bhopal in the wee hours of today, Ms Bharati addressed crowds of supporters at the wayside stations in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra attacking the Congress for reopening the case against her.

The police team from Karnataka, which was in Bhopal to execute the court warrant issued in the decade-old case in Hubli, returned after Ms Bharati conveyed the possibility of a law and order problem in the state if it arrested her here, party sources said.

Karnataka Chief Minister Dharam Singh, who was accused by Ms Bharati of having conspired to reopen the case at the behest of Congress President Sonia Gandhi, rushed back to Bangalore from New Delhi for a review of the situation with top police officials.

He told reporters later that the police would not hinder Ms Bharati from surrendering in the court but would step in only if BJP activists tried to create a law and order problem.

The police had been asked to decide whether to allow her to surrender or arrest her on entry into the state. It all depended on the situation, he added.

Earlier in the day, Karnataka DGP S.N. Borkar had said the former Chief Minister would be arrested once the train entered the state.

The police had been asked to be on “high alert” to ensure law and order in the state after her surrender or arrest.

Meanwhile, the Karnataka unit of the BJP also expressed solidarity with the feisty “sanyasin” saying that the party would launch an agitation demanding the withdrawal of “false cases” aginat her.