Kiran Walia: Lady Challenger to Kejriwal

By Deepak Parvatiyar

January 16, 2015

Arvind Kejriwal might relish his credentials as a ‘giant killer’ following his triumph over the then sitting chief minister of Delhi, Sheila Dikshit, but now is the time for him to earn the sobriquet of a ‘lady killer’ with no pun intended if he wins this time! For, he is slated to be pitted against formidable ladies in the ensuing Delhi elections.

Kejriwal Pitted against Women Candidates of Congress and BJP

Already the Congress has fielded a lady, the veteran Kiran Walia, against him and names of some other ladies – his associate at Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption movement and the country’s first female Indian Police Service officer Kiran Bedi, yesteryear’s actress-turned politician Jaya Prada, and his former party colleague Shazia Ilmi as well, are doing rounds as among possible Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) choices against him from the prestigious New Delhi constituency. While Bedi has already joined the BJP, Jaya Prada and Ilmi are likely to follow suit soon.

Last time when Kejriwal contested his maiden assembly election, it was against a sitting chief minister, what if she was a lady (Sheila)! He won by a smart margin of 25,864 votes and tried, though unsuccessfully, to repeat his giant slayer’s act against the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi in Varanasi in the General Elections 2014.

So, after conquering Sheila, he is destined to be teased and tested by women power at the hustings again! Late Nellie McClung, the renowned Canadian feminist had once famously said “never underestimate the power of a woman”. This applies to Kejriwal as well!

Kiran Walia: Born-Delhiite, Educated and Articulate

While speculations are still rife on the BJP’s choice from among Bedi, Jaya and Ilmi against him, even the Congress candidate against him, Walia, cannot be considered a pushover either.  In fact she is the only true born Delhiite in the list. Neither Kejriwal nor Sheila (who though has opted out this time) was born in Delhi. The same is true of Bedi, Jaya, and Ilmi.

Walia spent her lifetime in Delhi with her husband (who she lost in 2011) and two children, serving the city in different capacities – whether as a political science professor who taught at Kamla Nehru college of the University of Delhi for thirty years, or as an active politician since her early youth wherein she rose to become a three-time legislator and the Health and Family Welfare Minister in the Sheila Dikshit government.

Like Kejriwal, even Walia is not scared of contesting against the high and mighty. Her picking up the gauntlet against the AAP supremo is just one such case in point. In 1998 Assembly elections too, as a relatively unknown entity,  she had taken on the then chief minister and the BJP’s candidate Sushma Swaraj at the Hauz Khas constituency and performed creditably, losing by a slender margin of just 2,615 votes against her more formidable opponent. As against Sushma’s 49.29 per cent votes, she had then polled 44.19 per cent votes. Once Swaraj vacated the seat as she opted to continue as a Member of Parliament, Walia won the seat in the 1999 by-election. Thereafter, there was no stopping for this mother of two for the next 15 years as she retained the Hauz Khas seat in 2003 and won from Malviya Nagar seat in 2008.

Kiran Walia is a torchbearer of women related issues

Kiran Walia tasted a surprise defeat at the hands of the AAP’s Somnath Bharti at Malviya Nagar in the 2013 state election. She stood third then (behind the AAP and the BJP as well), but that did not deter her from pursuing her role of a seasoned political campaigner. In fact, she was one of the brains behind the Congress’s unconditional support to Kejriwal’s minority government in 2013. Yet she had shown remarkable foresight about the future of such an opportunistic alliance with her forthright statement that “…the support is not for always…”

This time again, soon after the Congress announced her candidature against Kejriwal, her choice of words to express her snub for Kejriwal – “We are in politics for a reason, not to shoot and scoot” – amply demonstrates her ability to be articulate – so important to create a public perception .

Walia is suave, erudite and among the foremost torchbearers of women related issues in the national capital. Yet, as women’s votes might split in case of another likely prominent woman candidate from the BJP, Walia does have a tough task ahead of her.

In any case, Kejriwal definitely requires lady luck to smile on him these elections since unlike in the past, when he quit as the Chief Minister, he cannot afford to shy away from facing the challenge anymore.  He needs to emerge as a ‘lady killer’ this time. Any doubt?