My Columns: Without Fear and Favour

Delhi Assembly Polls 2015: Will BJP Make Political Capital out of Defectors? By  Deepak Parvatiyar January 22, 2015 Political turncoats look for greener pasture. A notable development in the run up to the Delhi elections is that all but one political defection are to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The only significant reverse defection – from the BJP to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) – was when former deputy speaker and dalit face of the BJP, Fateh Singh, joined the AAP along with his three supporters in December. The outsiders in the BJP have indeed hit the jackpot this election season with seven of the turncoats getting the party ticket to contest elections. BJP’s Strategy behind Inducting Party Hoppers There may be two reasons behind the increasing number of people switching their loyalties to the BJP: {"uid":1,"hostPeerName":"http://www.elections.in","initialGeometry":"{\"windowCoords_t\":0,...

Will Kiran Bedi prove to be BJP’s Trump Card? By  Deepak Parvatiyar January 21, 2015 When stuck in Delhi’s traffic jam during the evening rush hours on the evening of October 31 last year, Kiran Bedi abandoned her car midway to hitch a ride to the United Nations Information Centre’s office to attend the launch of the 70th anniversary of the United Nations. This time she has hitched a ride yet again and the destination is Delhi Chief Minister’s residence! Unlike the October adventure, when the driver was unknown, the January venture seems well calculated. She has got the lift from none other than Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself and her political journey has got a dream start! Bickering within BJP over Kiran Bedi Kiran Bedi’s induction into the party was initiated by Modi and the BJP president Amit Shah themselves. Together the triumvirate seem to have gate-crashed into the much vaunted cadre-system of the party and despite being a total outsider, who was ...