Kiran Bedi’s tea for Delhi MPs leaves sour taste for some

TNN

New Delhi, 19 Jan 2015: BJP parliamentary board is scheduled to announce candidates for all 70 seats in Delhi on Monday. The board will also decide whether to declare Kiran Bedi as the party’s CM candidate. 

 

And a day before the meeting, Kiran Bedi on Sunday surprised BJP MPs from the city when she called them for tea at 3.30pm at her residence. 

 

She may be just a few days old in the party but she has already begun to call the shots.Though the request was routed through the party office, it left a bad taste in the mouth of some MPs who resented being summoned by someone who joined the party only days ago and doesn’t hold a formal position in the organization yet.

 

"She doesn’t hold any post in the party. But we have been asked to brief her. As for MPs, she should have gone and met them. Why were MPs asked to go to her house? There is a protocol which needs to be followed. This has never happened before in the party,’’ said a senior BJP functionary.

 

Sources said she is being considered for the Malviya Nagar seat though Greater Kailash and Krishna Nagar have also been mentioned as possibilities.

 

The sulk against Bedi notwithstanding, Sunday’s event marked the grudging acquiescence in the ranks of Bedi’s emergence as the new saffron mascot for the Capital. While BJP general secretary Ram Lal asked partymen to embrace Bedi and call her "Kirandidi", four of the LokSabha MPs turned up for the tea. They were New Delhi MP MeenakshiLekhi, West Delhi MP Parvesh Sahib Singh, South Delhi MPRameshBidhuri and East Delhi MP MaheishGirri. They were accompanied by RajyaSabha MP Vijay Goel.

 

Two of those who could not make it -- Northeast Delhi MP ManojTiwari and Northwest Delhi MP Udit Raj -- had prior commitments. The remaining one - Union minister Harsh Vardhan, who was projected as CM candidate in the last assembly polls and who runs a serious risk of losing out to Bedi this time -- turned up a bit late because of another engagement and couldn’t meet her.

 

"I informed her office that I’ll get a little late due to a prior commitment. I reached around 4.30pm but she had left by then. I spoke to her on phone,’’ Vardhan, the Union science and technology minister, said.

 

The MPs were informed about the meeting by Delhi BJP office, and not Bedi’s office, on Saturday evening. Though the invite was for evening tea, they were told to be there by 3.30pm. "If it was a courtesy meeting, then her office could have called us,’’ said an MP.

 

 

As Bedi plans to start her campaign from Monday, the MPs briefed her about the key issues of their constituencies. "She wanted to meet us personally. She wanted to know about our constituencies and what all work we have done. We also told her about the major issues in our constituencies. It was a nice meeting,’’ Maheish Girri said.

 

There is growing resentment among the rank and file of Delhi BJP against the party’s decision to induct Bedi which has led to speculation that she will be the party’s CM face in the coming elections. Her style of working has become a cause of concern for party workers. On Saturday, she had called a meeting with mayors and councillors of East and North corporations. She told them that they have to intensify the sanitation drive, which is Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pet project, in the city.

 

To ensure that she connects with the state cadre, the BJP has asked party workers to address her as "Kiran didi". Addressing a large gathering of party workers, BJP general secretary Ram Lal said, "Don’t call her Kiran Bediji. Now onwards, she is Kiran didi for you."