New Delhi, January 16 – Former Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Kiran Bedi formally joined the Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday. The 65-year-old activist has been an active supporter of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on TV debates.
There is also speculation about Bedi being the BJP’s chief ministerial candidate in the national capital. Bedi, along with former Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, was one of the prominent faces of the India Against Corruption campaign led by Gandhian activist Anna Hazare two years ago.
“Delhi and Delhites do not deserve this kind of prolonged negativity. The Capital needs integrity wisdom, experience, vision and implementation” Bedi had tweeted on Thursday morning.
Welcoming her into the party weeks ahead of the Delhi Assembly elections on February 7, BJP president Amit Shah said, ” I extend my heartiest wishes to Kiran Bediji for joining BJP. Her presence will strengthen our Delhi unit.”
Meanwhile, former Samajwadi Party MP Jaya Prada, her mentor and fellow RLD leader Amar Singh, and former Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Shazia Ilmi are also expected to join the BJP soon. No formal announcement to this effect, however, was not made at the BJP press conference on Thursday.
Amar Singh, who offers a package deal to the BJP with Jaya, said, ” We (Jaya Prada and me) are in touch with everybody. We had met BJP’s Om Mathur and Prabhat Jha. I am also an old friend of (Finance Minister) Arun Jaitley.”
Jaya Prada also did not reveal her exact plans. “The talks are going on. The moment it comes out, everyone will know,” she told Headlines Today. There are strong rumours about Jaya being fielded opposite Kejriwal from the prestigious New Delhi constituency.
Jaya had lost the 2014 Lok Sabha polls from Bijnor seat in Uttar Pradesh. Along with her mentor Amar Singh, the actor-turned-politician had joined Ajit Singh’s Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) in 2014. She was an MP from the Rampur parliamentary seat in UP twice in 2004 and 2009.
The third high profile woman expected to join the BJP soon is Shazia Ilmi. On Wednesday, said she will campaign for the party in the Delhi Assembly elections but has not yet decided on joining the party.
Ilmi had quit the AAP last year, accusing the party of lacking democracy within and its chief Arvind Kejriwal of cultivating cronies around him. She had recently joined Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pet Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan, raising speculations of her joining the saffron party.
Ilmi had contested the 2013 Delhi Assembly elections from the RK Puram constituency which she lost to BJP’s Anil Sharma by a thin margin of 326 votes. She also lost the 2014 general elections from Ghaziabad against former Army chief General VK Singh.
Elections to the Delhi Assembly are to be held on February 7 and the counting of votes will be done on February 10. The BJP has not yet declared its list of candidates for the polls and is expected to do this by the end of this week.
-INDIA TODAY
