 "Kiran Bedi")
Kiran Bedi, a 1972 batch Indian Police Service officer who took voluntary retirement in 2007, joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday.
According to sources, Bedi, a Magsaysay award winner, will be the BJP’s face for the Delhi Assembly elections against Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal and Congress’ Ajay Maken.
The BJP, however, will not announce her name as its official chief ministerial candidate as the party wants to continue its strategy of going to polls with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s promise of development.
While BJP president Amit Shah confirmed that Bedi will contest the February 7 election on a party ticket, he said the decision on the CM candidate would be taken by the party’s parliamentary board after election results come.
Bedi cited Modi’s “inspirational leadership” as the reason for her joining the BJP. “The BJP has given me an opportunity to return everything I have got, to the nation. I’m in mission mode now," she said.
According to BJP sources, the decision to induct Bedi was taken in the last 48-hours and it came right from the top leadership of the party.
The BJP was wary of Kejriwal coming out with a ‘disclosure a day’ until the day of the voting against one or the other Delhi unit BJP leader.
On Wednesday, the AAP leader had alleged “conflict of interest” by Delhi BJP president Satish Upadhyay and vice-president Ashish Sood because of their association with companies that installed electricity meters for Delhi’s power distribution companies. On Thursday, the AAP came out with more “evidence” against Upadhyay, while the latter filed a defamation case against Kejriwal.
BJP strategists believe the battle for Delhi, despite the ‘Modi wave’ being intact, is likely to be a closely-fought one. They fear the AAP’s allegations against some of its Delhi unit leaders could dent its middle-class vote base. Bedi, with her image of a honest former police officer and an anti-corruption activist, will blunt the AAP’s line of attack, party strategists say.
Bedi, along with Kejriwal, was a key member of social activist Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption Jan Lokpal movement of 2011-12. Bedi had refused to join the AAP when it was launched in end-2012.
On Thursday, Kejriwal tweeted: “I have been fond of Kiran Bediji. I always tried to convince her that she should join politics. I am happy she did today.”
According to BJP sources, important former AAP leaders such as disgruntled former AAP MLA Surinder Koli and Shazia Ilmi are likely to join the party in the next few days. Ilmi might campaign for the party, although the BJP wants her to contest against Kejriwal from his New Delhi constituency.
Over the years, Bedi has seldom made a secret of her wish to join the BJP and be declared the party’s chief ministerial candidate. However, local leadership had been protesting any move to foist an ‘outsider’ on them. BJP president Shah has tried to quell any such speculation, by saying Bedi’s entry has strengthened the party’s Delhi unit, and that everybody in the party unit is “happy” at the development.
Shah said Bedi’s long experience as an administrator will be a source of strength for a BJP government in Delhi.
Bedi said her 40 years’ experience as an administrator would now be at the disposal of the people of Delhi. Bedi spoke about her vision to provide Delhi a stable, honest, visionary and corruption-free government to make the city the real “dil (heart)” of India.
“I know how to work and also know how to get work done,” Bedi said. She added a BJP government in Delhi would conduct social audits to have the participation of the citizens into decision making.
Bedi, who is a Magsaysay Award winner for her prison reforms, is the former director-general of the Bureau of Police Research and Development. She took voluntary retirement in 2007, after an officer junior to her was appointed Delhi Police Commissioner. The seat from which Bedi will contest is yet to be decided. Bedi is said to be not that keen to contest against her former comrade Kejriwal.
