Kiran Bedi heads to BJP as Delhi CM candidate

In a move that surprised and shocked many, Kiran Bedi has joined the BJP and is set to be the party's candidate for the Delhi Elections. She availed the BJP’s provision of signing up as a member online, by doing so in the presence of the party’s chief Amit Shah and Union  Minister Arun Jaitley and Harshwardhan.

In her statement in an article in The Hindu, she said "Delhi needs a stable, strong, corruption-free government. I have the experience, time and energy to make Delhi a world-class capital city." The party is to have another meeting soon, to assign her a place in the upcoming elections. But speculations suggest that she may be a chief ministerial candidate who will take on the Aam Admi Party Chief Arvind Kejriwal, from the New Delhi constituency, in which case she will also be up against Dr. Kiran Walia of the Congress.

Mr. Shah refused to comment on that, but he did say that "The BJP will be strengthened by Kiran Bedi joining the party and afterwards during government formation in Delhi,” while Mr. Jaitley said it had been the effort of the party to bring "experienced, trustworthy people" into it. "The party has been in touch with Ms. Bedi. We are happy she has joined the party. The country knows her. Being in government she has experience of governance, has credibility and has been a crusader after her retirement."

Kiran Bedi, who is said to be staunchly anti-establishment, has now joined what is possibly the biggest establishment of our time- the Modi establishment. She revealed that she was inspired by the way Modi led the party to victory last May. She believes he has “revived hope” in the country, and also met the man ahead of going to the headquarters in Delhi to join the party formally.

In 2007, Bedi had given up her government job as a police officer as she was “overlooked for promotion as Delhi's Police Commissioner”, and decided instead, to take on social work.

Ms. Bedi was in fact a close associate of Arvind Kejriwal in Anna Hazare's anti-corruption movement three years ago, but parted ways with him when he decided to form the AAP, thinking that it wasn’t the correct time for them to contest elections.

Reacting to this new development, Mr. Kejriwal tweeted, "I have been fond of Kiran Bedi ji. I always tried to convince herthat she should join politics. I am happy she did it today," a hint of possible scorn in his tone. The congress even went to the extent of terming her decision as “gross political opportunism”