Kiran Bedi – Is she doing more harm than good to the BJP and to herself, by joining the BJP?

By Deepak Parvatiyar

February 4, 2015

The veracity of opinion polls could often be doubtful but not their impact. These pre-poll surveys remain a powerful tool to influence perception of the voters. Hence, when recently they suggested that the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Chief Ministerial candidate in Delhi, Kiran Bedi, after an initial upsurge, was no longer the people’s first choice for the coveted post, they did make many heads turn.

These surveys further showed that the Aam Aadmi Party had actually now emerged as the favourite to win the Delhi election – Consider the Hindustan Times –C Fore surveys. They showed that the BJP’s position considerably slumped from its earlier position while the AAP considerably improved its position from the earlier surveys (the first survey conducted between January 10-19 projected the BJP to win between 29 and 34 seats but the entry of Bedi into the scene saw it soar to between 31 and 36 seats. However, the latest survey showed a remarkable slump as it projected the Lotus’s tally just between 27 and 32 seats, thus falling short of the majority mark in the 70 member Delhi House). Similarly, a recent Economic Times survey conducted by TNS in the last week of January showed Bedi’s popularity at 38 per cent, which was still 16 percentage points behind Kejriwal!

Other pre-poll surveys too are not much different either.

What is making Bedi lose her sheen in Delhi?

So what makes Bedi lose her sheen in Delhi so early despite her excellent reputation and impeccable record as the country’s first female police officer?

There could be many attributes to such a possibility including her rank outsider status in the BJP, that reportedly irked many within the BJP cadre and made Kejriwal take a dig at her, quipping that “…(senior BJP leaders) Vijay Goel, Satish Upadhyay, Harsh Vardhan are plotting against her”.

Obviously her last minute induction into the BJP and immediate elevation as the party’s CM face meant many heartburns within the Saffron fold. Yet, instead of making efforts to taking along the party together, she rather got into the act of asserting her supremacy. Consider these reports:

-- She was seen shouting at party workers and disciplining them at her very first interaction with them after she joined the BJP.

-- In a clear act of asserting her supremacy, she summoned all seven BJP Members of Parliament from Delhi to her residence soon after joining the party. She wasn’t even declared the party’s CM face till then. She did not even extend the time of the meeting to accommodate Union Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan, who was the BJP’s CM face in the last elections and is the MP from Chandni Chowk! The minister, though, did talk to her over phone later. Two other MPs, Udit Raj and Manoj Tiwari, who could not attend the meetings, had to “inform” Bedi of their prior commitments. Tiwari dropped enough hint of his displeasure when he sermonised her to be “humble”, only to retract his statement later.

-- She refused to coordinate with the MPs, who have been directed by the party to help her in campaign.

-- She preferred to meet people in her own constituency rather than holding rallies.

-- Instead of engaging with the party’s manifesto committee, headed by Harsh Vardhan, she was rather     indulged into tweeting her own vision of governance for Delhi through five ‘S’ (Saakshar (Literate),          Swastha (Healthy), Sakshum (Capable), Surakshit (Secured) and Sanskari (Ethical) and six ‘Ps’ (people, politicians, policing, prosecution, prisons and the press).

-- The last straw was when on February 3, Narendra Tandon, who was in charge of managing her election schedule, resigned accusing Bedi of “having a dictatorial attitude”. Though he was finally made to retract his resignation, it had already caused enough embarrassment to the party leadership.

The question thus arises whether Bedi is doing more harm than good to the BJP and to herself, by joining the BJP?

Yet before answering this question, it would be apt to mention that the BJP leadership had left no stone unturned to massage her ego. Consider how gag orders were issued by the Party’s Central leadership that she be referred to only as Kiran Didi (elder sister).

Ostensibly this preferred treatment to her too seems to have made the case worse for the lady in the faction ridden organisation. More so when she is a novice in politics and not much long ago, was highly critical of the saffron party. She at present seems to have two immediate challenges:

a) To assuage the hurt feelings of the party leaders from Delhi (there are reports suggesting that Harsh Vardhan, who had thus far remained undefeated in Krishna Nagar since1993 and from where Bedi is contesting this time, has been missing from her rallies).

b) To convince people that she is not an opportunist and that she genuinely believed that she could bring about a change in their lives through politics.

Kiran Bedi has disappointed her supporters

However, by declining to participate in public debates on the issue, and by running away from harsh questions posed to her by television anchors and field journalists, she has indeed thus far disappointed her supporters.

At the moment, even her roadshows, corner meetings and even election rallies are not attracting crowds as is in the case of Kejriwal. This has reportedly compelled the state BJP to assign a firefighting team to Bedi for ensuring better crowd management at her poll meetings. If reports are to be believed then of late, even the party leadership had to “gag her for putting the party in a tight spot due to her ‘straight talks’. This was apparent by the party’s move to sideline her and instead involve senior ministers in daily briefings wherein the focus is deflected from her to Kejriwal.

Ostensibly Bedi has failed to live up to the expectations of the BJP thus far. After all, her induction was indeed considered to be a master stroke by the saffron brigade to insulate Prime Minister Narendra Modi – when Kejriwal had deftly made it a direct battle between him and the PM in the absence of any BJP CM face for Delhi then. Yet thus far, as pre-poll surveys suggest, she has failed to take on Kejriwal’s pyrotechnics. She does need to find a way for herself and the BJP as well, before time runs out for her.