Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday challenged BJP's Kiran Bedi to a public debate, after congratulating her for being nominated as the party's chief ministerial candidate for Delhi.
. >@thekiranbedi congrats 4 being nominated as BJP's CM candidate. I invite u 4 a public debate moderated by neutral person n telecast by all
— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) >January 20, 2015 . >@thekiranbedi Kiranji, i used to follow u on twitter. Now, u have blocked me on twitter. Kindly unblock me.
— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) >January 20, 2015Responding to the challenge, Ms. Bedi said the AAP chief believes “only in debates” while her focus was on delivery of services, and that she will debate “on the floor of the House".
The AAP leader said, “It will be a good initiative for democracy if there is a debate between us on different issues.People vote in the name of religion and caste...they are not aware of issues. The debate, around 1-2 hours long should be on concrete issues.”
The former Delhi Chief Minister also requested Ms. Bedi to “unblock” him in on microblogging site twitter.
Terming Mr. Kejriwal’s twitter account as a “polluting” one, Ms. Bedi hit back saying that she had blocked him more than a year ago as he was “spreading negativity“.
“I blocked him 15 months back when he called himself an anarchist. He was spreading negativity. Didn’t want my four million followers to see negativity... it was a polluting account,” Ms. Bedi, who was on Monday night named the chief ministerial candidate for the upcoming Delhi Assembly elections, said.
Ready for 'structured debate': Maken
Responding to Mr. Kejriwal’s challenge, Congress leader Ajay Maken said, “This will be a healthy tradition. I believe a structured debate should take place in a mutually accepted TV channel or agency moderated by a mutually accepted anchor".
Mr. Maken, who is also the party’s Campaign Committee Chief, said a debate will enable the leadership of various parties to spell out their vision to the public by answering “difficult questions".
