Kiran Bedi with fellow BJP party members during a roadshow on her way to file her nomination from Krishna Nagar. (Agence France-Presse)
Kiran Bedi's first road show as the BJP's presumptive Chief Minister had colour, drama, controversy and, according to the former top-cop-turned-politician, a happy ending.
After filing her nominations papers from the Krishna Nagar Constituency in east Delhi, Kiran Bedi sounded satisfied and somewhat relieved when she said, "I have filed my nomination... no error has been found. In the first examination, we've have managed a first class first with a gold medal." (
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At other nomination centres, she had top of the mind recall for her rivals. The Aam Aadmi Party's Arvind Kejriwal attacked her as he filed his nomination papers from the New Delhi Constituency for, among other things, draping a sash with BJP symbols around the statue of freedom fighter Lala Lajpat Rai. (
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The Congress' Ajay Maken accused her of running away from a public debate.
Ms Bedi, less than a week old in the BJP, batted away criticism as she spent three hours today travelling down narrow lanes in an open jeep, with multiple garlands around her neck and BJP leaders surrounding her.
She dismissed comparisons between the relatively modest turnout at her roadshow and the hundreds that her chief rival Arvind Kejriwal's roadshow drew yesterday.
Her roadshow was clearly designed as a show of unity after open dissent among party workers in the Delhi BJP over ticket distribution for the Delhi Assembly elections. On the jeep with Ms Bedi was Union Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan, who held the Krishna Nagar seat earlier, and is widely seen as having been sidelined, with Ms Bedi being named the BJP's Chief Ministerial candidate.
Top BJP leader and Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said, "There is no crisis in the BJP, the party stands united to face the Delhi Assembly elections."