Two prominent faces, one from the Anna movement and the other from the Aam Aadmi Party, have joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in quick succession ahead of the Delhi Assembly election. While the former IPS officer Kiran Bedi joined the party on Thursday and is the front runner for the Chief Minister’s post, the former AAP leader Shazia Ilmi was inducted into the party on Friday in the presence of Delhi BJP chief Satish Upadhyay.
The February 7 election may see two major faces from the Anna movement, Arvind Kejriwal and Kiran Bedi, vying for the Chief Minister’s post if pitted against each other. With three weeks left for the election, the BJP views both new recruits as powerful opponents against its main rival, the AAP.
Mr. Kejriwal, AAP convener, said he was fighting to make Delhi a better place, while the BJP was fighting to defeat him. Ms. Bedi, who has not been named the chief ministerial candidate, however, spelt out her “comprehensive plans” for the city, and said she would go along with the BJP’s strategy and contest from whichever constituency she would be asked to. Ms. Ilmi said she had no intention of contesting elections, and she hoped the party would respect her wishes. BJP sources said Ms. Ilmi’s induction had brought a strong face to attract minority votes in the city.
Mr. Kejriwal, who addressed an election rally in Trilokpuri, where communal tensions flared up last October, took a dig at his former associates, and said their switch to the BJP days ahead of the Delhi election did not hold any significance as the “truth would ultimately prevail.”
