BJP signals a fresh makeover with Kiran Bedi for Delhi CM

New Delhi: Making a virtue out of necessity, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) inducted former Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Kiran Bedi to lead the party in the upcoming elections to the Delhi assembly.

Not only has Bedi filled the leadership vacuum in the Delhi unit of the BJP, her induction also served to blunt the advantage that Arvind Kejriwal, the convener of the Aam Admi Party (AAP), enjoyed as a fresh face in politics.

But by enlisting an outsider and non-politician to head the party’s campaign, the BJP, insiders and outsiders believe, has set in motion a process of change within the party.

While taking the decision, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also convinced the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the BJP’s ideological parent, to accept the move—the first time an outsider has been inducted and made chief ministerial candidate.

Senior leaders of the BJP argue that Modi is consciously trying to effect a makeover of the party, which has mostly drawn leaders from its own cadre.

“The decision to make Kiran Bedi the chief ministerial candidate of the BJP was made to pay the opponents (back) in their own coin,” said Vinay Sahasrabuddhe, vice-president of the BJP. Senior leaders of the BJP are of the view that the biggest advantage for Kejriwal was to project himself as an outsider in politics, but by choosing Bedi, the BJP managed to wrest this advantage away.

“AAP had created a mood against the traditional-style politicians. Now BJP has also promoted a person who is known as a good administrator and an anti-corruption crusader,” said another senior leader of the BJP on condition of anonymity.

The move is consistent with the manner in which the party has approached candidate selection ever since the duo of Modi and Amit Shah took charge. In Lok Sabha elections last year, the BJP opted to hand out a third of the tickets to other backward class (OBC) candidates—in the past the tickets went overwhelmingly to the upper castes, who also dominated the party at the national level.

“If we look at the choice of leaders in past seven months, BJP leaders have chosen Manohar Lal Khattar in Haryana and Devendra Fadnavis in Maharashtra. Both these leaders are not traditional politicians seen in these two states. While Khattar is an unmarried man, Fadnavis is young and educated. The BJP is slowly going through a transition,” the second BJP leader cited above added.

Political analysts watching the tussle between Bedi and Kejriwal feel that the BJP selected the former because it was finding it difficult to match the popularity of Kejriwal. “BJP chose Kiran Bedi because the party wanted to counter the popularity of Kejriwal. Kiran Bedi is also seen as an anti-corruption face, like Arvind Kejriwal, and a large number of people now say that she too can be a chief ministerial candidate because...she too has been a crusader,” said Sanjay Kumar, a New Delhi-based political analyst.

Interestingly, the RSS did not oppose the choice of Bedi. Party insides aver the RSS accepted the fact that the existing leadership was not equipped to deal with the stiff challenge mounted by the AAP.

“The BJP leadership in Delhi is riddled with factionalism and there have been protests on the selection of Kiran Bedi. The RSS agreed because there was no leader who could challenge the image of Kiran Bedi. The RSS could not have backed a weak leader to win Delhi. Victory in Delhi is very important for BJP,” added the second BJP leader.

“Although it is rare, all the leaders of the BJP in Delhi currently do not have marketable value. There is factionalism and no leader in BJP’s Delhi unit can match the popularity of Bedi. RSS is a very pragmatic organisation and it knows the importance of being in power,” said Jai Mrug, a Mumbai-based political analyst.