This Article is From Jan 21, 2015

Kiran Bedi, Garlanded, In Open Truck for Road Show

Kiran Bedi with supporters at the roadshow.

New Delhi: In an open jeep, with multiple garlands around her neck and BJP leaders surrounding her, Kiran Bedi held a road show down the narrow lanes of  Krishna Nagar, the east Delhi constituency from which she is contesting her first election.

She dismissed comparisons with her chief rival Arvind Kejriwal's roadshow yesterday, but the difference was stark. Hundreds of supporters had joined the Aam Aadmi Party chief as he traveled seven kilometers in fours hours on an open truck on Tuesday, missing a 3 pm deadline to file his nomination papers.

Ms Bedi's road show had a few cars and some supporters running alongside.

It 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 is union minister Dr Harshvardhan, who held this 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 home minister Rajnath Singh said, "There is no crisis in the BJP, the party stands united to face the Delhi Assembly elections. Ms Bedi said there was no dissent in the party over her candidacy.

After the road show, Ms Bedi filed her nomination from east Delhi's Krishna Nagar. Arvind Kejriwal, after having missed the deadline yesterday, has successfully filed his nomination from New Delhi constituency. Congress' Ajay Maken too, has filed his nomination from Sadar Bazaar.

Kiran Bedi and Arvind Kejriwal are vying for the post of Delhi chief minister. Both their parties dismiss the Congress as irrelevant in these elections.

The BJP announced on Monday that Ms Bedi, a rank newcomer in the party, would be its presumptive chief minister. It has fielded the former top cop from one of its safest seats in the capital.

Against Mr Kejriwal on the New Delhi constituency, the BJP has put up Nupur Sharma, a young London School of Economics graduate and a former student leader, in what is being seen as handing the AAP chief a cakewalk.

The party has also decided to field a newcomer against the Congress' Greater Kailash candidate Sharmishta Mukherji, who is the daughter of President Pranab Mukherjee.

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