Neutralising Kejriwal: BJP bringing on Kiran Bedi just changed everything in Delhi

New Delhi: It’s IIT versus IIT, Civil Services versus Civil Services, Ramon Magsasay Award versus Ramon Magsasay Award and India Against Corruption versus India Against Corruption (IAC).
Will the choice for Delhi voters be between BJP’s Kiran Bedi and Aam Aadmi Party’s Arvind Kejriwal, when the capital goes to polls on February 7 to elect its Assembly? Will BJP eventually declare Bedi as its chief ministerial nominee?
By inducting India’s first woman IPS officer, Kiran Bedi, into the party, the BJP has found a trump card to checkmate AAP’s biggest poll agenda: women’s security, which was the one issue in which AAP had scored over the BJP and the Congress. But by introducing Bedi, who was known as a tough, no-nonsense cop, the BJP wants to win over that space.
Though BJP president Amit Shah categorically stated that the chief ministerial candidate would be decided by the party’s Parliamentary Board, speculations are high that Bedi will get the job if the BJP comes to power.
Why are the chances of Kiran Bedi as the BJP’s chief ministerial nominee high? She has the right, no-nonsense credentials that the Delhi voter, who overwhelmingly voted for change, are clearly craving.
Bedi earned the nickname ‘Crane Bedi’ during her tenure as deputy commissioner Police Traffic for extensive use of cranes to tow away wrongly parked cars. Famously, she didn’t even spare the car of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
As DG (Prisons), she introduced reformatory measures in Tihar Jail and also founded two NGOs for welfare and preventative policing, as well as for prison reformation, community policing, prevention of drug abuse and child welfare.
Moreover, until now, the BJP has had no strong leader in Delhi that it can project as a possible CM candidate and lead the charge against the high-decibel poll pitch of the AAP.
Bedi, who is well-kown for being India’s first woman IPS officer (she joined in 1972), brings that star value to the Delhi unit of the BJP, which has until now, been a poor reflection of the party’s status in other states. In the last Assembly elections, the party banked on Dr. Harsh Vardhan, but he has since been moved to the Centre as a union minister.
During Sheila Dikshit’s tenure as Delhi CM, Bedi was denied the post of Delhi Police Commissioner and an officer two years’ junior to her was appointed. She took voluntary retirement and pursued her social work