New Delhi: In what could add more spice to the battle for power in Delhi, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) founding member Kiran Bedi on Thursday joined Bharatiya Janata Party.
“Today Kiran Bedi ji has joined BJP, and I am sure Delhi BJP party will be strengthened due to her presence,” BJP Party President Amit Shah after formally inducting Bedi to the saffron party.Â
Answering to the question of BJP’s chief minister candidate, Shah said, “It is prerogative of Parliamentary Board to decide who will be CM candidate, so far Kiran ji has joined us, will contest election.”
“I have an administrative experience of 40 years, I have come here to dedicate all my experience to Delhi and nation,” Kiran Bedi said. She also thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for reposing his faith in her and said,”I’m here today because of his inspirational leadership.”
“Delhi will now get a stable,honest,hardworking,inclusive, sensitive,trusting,progressive,experienced governance. Thanku @PMOIndia and BJP,” Bedi tweeted.Â
Speculation was rife about Kiran Bedi joining politics after she tweeted, “I no more rule out entering Indian political service on capability basis. I am moving towards some flexibility in this.” last year.
Bedi, ex IPS officer, was all praise for Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the past one year. “Feel as if the country was orphaned past several years. It finally has a guardian who is caring and capable! We can now focus on creativity,” she had tweeted after 2014 Lok Sabha election results were declared on May 16.
Former Shazia Ilmi and actor-turned-politician Jaya Prada are also likely to join Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday.
Rumours of Ilmi moving to BJP were doing the rounds ever since she was nominated by Delhi BJP chief Satish Upadhyay for PMJ Modi’s Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. After quitting AAP, Ilmi was critical of the party’s functioning and has accused it of not having internal democracy.
Jaya Prada was expelled from the Samajwadi Party in 2010 for indulging in activities inimical to its political interests and damaging its image.
She had contested Lok Sabha elections in 2014 on Rashtriya Lok Dal’s ticket from Bijnor but had lost. The actor turned politician has been a part of the Telugu Desam Party, the Samajwadi Party and later the RLD. She has served a term in the Rajya Sabha and two in the Lok Sabha.
BJP is likely to release its first list of candidates for Delhi Assembly polls on Thursday. The Election Committee of BJP will meet in the capital to discuss strategies for its campaign.
Polling in Delhi will be held on February 7 and the counting of votes will take place on February 10.
In the last Assembly polls in Delhi in 2013, BJPÂ had bagged 31 seats in addition to one by its ally Shiromani Akali Dal, falling short of a simple majority in the 70-member House. Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had won in 28 seats, followed by eight of Congress.
Delhi was under President’s rule since February 2014 after the Kejriwal-led AAP government quit, citing lack of support for an anti-graft bill, among others.
(With inputs from ANI)