Kiran Bedi begins roadshow, vows to be gardener, guardian for Krishna Nagar

BJP’s chief ministerial candidate Kiran Bedi started her roadshow in the capital today and is all set to file her nomination for the February 7 Delhi Assembly elections from the Krishna Nagar constituency of East Delhi, which is a BJP stronghold, that has been won five times by Union Minister Harsh Vardhan, who was the BJP chief ministerial candidate in the 2013 polls.

According to TV reports, Bedi began her roadshow from Lajpat Rai Chowk in Krishna Nagar and plans to reach the office by noon to file her nomination papers, well before the 3 pm deadline.

65-year-old Bedi, the country’s first woman IPS officer, was named the BJP’s chief ministerial by party President Amit Shah after a meeting of the BJP Parliamentary Board on Monday night. On Tuesday, she said she would bring a clean government in the national capital by focusing on every department.

“Every minister and government officials will work together. I will bring a clean government in Delhi which would focus on every department,” Bedi said while meeting BJP workers in her Krishna Nagar assembly constituency.

Union minister Harsh Vardhan along with over 200 party workers welcomed her. It was Bedi’s first visit to the constituency from where Harsh Vardhan won five times. Speaking to the media, Bedi said that she considered Krishna Nagar as belonging to Harsh Vardhan, vowing to be a ‘gardener and guardian’ for the seat.

Meanwhile, arch rival Arvind Kejriwal’s road show failed to reach the Jamnagar House on time on Tuesday, which is why the Aam AAdmi Party chief too will file his nomination papers today, the last day for candidates to do so.

As Firstpost noted earlier , even though Kejriwal failed to file the nomination papers on Tuesday, “The road show was in fact a big show of strength and the first-of-its-kind in this season. More than 3,000 AAP members and supporters, donning party’s white topi (cap) and holding jhaadu (brooms), participated in the 7-km rally in New Delhi..

“We respect the Election Commission, administration and police. We have exceeded the time limit to file the nomination and for this reason I will file my nomination tomorrow,” Kejriwal had said on Tuesday.

While there was no official word on how many people accompanied Kejriwal on his road show, the Times of India reported, “Hundreds of supporters joined him, raising slogans, singing and dancing. The AAP chief had tweeted an appeal to Delhiites to “take a chhutti (leave) n join me” for the roadshow. Flash mobs also danced during the roadshow.” The hashtag #WalkwithKejriwal was the top trend on Twitter all day, and supporters of the party tweeted out images of the roadshow:

Today will be a hectic day for electoral officials with several senior leaders including Congress’ Ajay Maken, filing their nomination papers. Scrutiny of nominations papers would be done on January 22 while the last date for withdrawal of candidatures is January 24. The election results would be declared on February 10.