Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah on Saturday said the name of the party’s Chief Ministerial candidate in the coming Bihar Assembly elections would be decided by the BJP parliamentary board. However, he defended the projection of Kiran Bedi as the BJP’s CM face in the Delhi Assembly polls, asking: “What’s wrong with that?”
Mr. Shah was on a two-day visit to Bihar, where Assembly elections are due in November
Asked whether the BJP would borrow someone from outside like Kiran Bedi as the party’s chief ministerial candidate in Bihar as well, Mr. Shah said “it is for the BJP parliamentary board to decide whether the party will project a face or not as the Chief Ministerial candidate for the Bihar Assembly elections.”
“The BJP has always been in favour of inducting eminent personalities from different fields into the party and Kiran Bedi is one such example,” he said. He pointed out that she had been an outstanding police officer who fought against corruption throughout her life and women in Delhi had faith in her as she had done so much for their security.
Like Maharashtra, Haryana and Jharkhand, the elections in Bihar too would be fought on the charisma of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he said.
He expressed annoyance with a private news channel’s role in ‘promoting’ the AAP for the Delhi Assembly elections. “This TV channel is having an agenda to launch the Aam Aadmi Party and help Arvind Kejriwal win the elections in Delhi… there cannot be a bigger example of yellow journalism than this.”
