If Kiran Bedi’s epiphany moment of joining BJP a few days back has stunned you, Shazia Ilmi and Vinod Kumar Binny have left AAP to join BJP too.
If Kiran Bedi’s epiphany moment of joining BJP a few days back has stunned you, Shazia Ilmi and Vinod Kumar Binny have left AAP to join BJP too.
Ahead of the Delhi assembly elections on February 7, we even have ex-UPA Minister, Krishna Tirath joining the league, and yes after serving for Congress for 30 long years!
Well, if you think about it, this is nothing new, as Vinod Kumar Binny joined BJP along with BSP Deputy Mayor and Councillor, Vir Singh, former bureaucrat Devki Nandan and ex-Congress leader, Ram Kailash Gupta and claimed that “Kejriwal duped the masses as well as other AAP party members and leaders”.
Binny had reportedly also wanted to contest against Kejriwal from the New Delhi Constituency and alleged that Kejriwal had encashed his idea of ‘Moholla Sabhas’, that was executed as AAP party programme in May 2014, to discuss and plan on to how to spend Rupees 4 crore cash allotted for the MLA Local Area Development. These meetings also called for residents of some local areas of Delhi to discuss their issues with the cleanliness, safety and development of their area.
Well, whatever the truth might be, the fact remains that now BJP will be winning more support and votes from the masses, giving that they have Krishna Tirath too, who has served as the Women and Child Development Minister for UPA and a Dalit Leader, to garner the support of Dalits, apart from Delhi MP Udit Raj who was earlier chosen by BJP to be projected as the Dalit face. Udit Raj has also reportedly joined BJP just before the Lok Sabha elections. Till now the Dalit race has been AAP’s bastion.
After Binny’s strong blame against Kejriwal and the workings of BJP, we have yet another veteran, Tirath claiming that “Congress lacks discipline” and “she identifies with NaMo and Amit Shah’s motto of making the country Congress-Mukt.” Is it not strange that a party member who has served a union for so long did not recognize the indiscipline in the party any time prior to this? She had to switch her loyalties only after BJP came to power with massive vote counts and seeing other important party members (from BSP, AAP, etc.) join BJP!
However, her role in the party is still not decided and we might see BJP President Shah coming up with some new roles and agenda for Tirath. As of now, it is clear that she will be seen in the forthcoming Delhi elections on Feb 7.
Before NaMo became the PM, and even now the party seems to have no specific candidate as a nominee for the position of Delhi’s Chief Minister but with popular political personality, Kiran Bedi joining the ruling party, we might just get to see her as the party’s ‘face’ in the elections though there is a row within the party on whether she should be projected as the chief ministerial candidate.
While Tirath maintains that “BJP is the only party which cares for the Dalit community, women and youth of the country, and is disciplined”, Ajay Maken criticised BJP’s move to include other party members in its own group, claiming that “this reveals BJP’s nervousness” and alleged the party of “importing leaders in desperation.” Well, who should be nervous after gaining only eight votes in Delhi elections in 2013 and with party veterans like son of former Union Home Minister and ex-Congress leader Buta Singh, Arvinder Singh Lovely and now Ms. Tirath joining the saffron party? And, note this:
The news of Tirath meeting Shah to leave UPA and join BJP reached the Congress headquarters when Mr. Maken was releasing a booklet criticising the Aam Aadmi Party! (What a moment it might have been for Congress, I wonder!)
Till the party elections are not over, Tirath, Lovely, Binny and Ilmi will help BJP gain better support and win the assembly elections, but after that it seems only Kiran Bedi might gain from this transfer of loyalties and switching parties, as she is most likely to be the capital’s Chief Minister. This, however, has got mixed reactions from Twitteratis.
It will be a huge step forward in the process of nation building if @thekiranbedi joins the BJP. Impeccable track record. Fingers crossed!
— Priti Gandhi (@MrsGandhi) January 15, 2015
if @thekiranbedi joins BJP..@ArvindKejriwal shld invite her fr open debate at JantarMantar..sab doodh ka doodh aur paani ka paani ho jayega!
— SaumyaP (@spandey2004) January 15, 2015
@ArvindKejriwal get ready for your nightmares… you are finished .@thekiranbedi is likely to take you on in New Delhi once she joins #BJP
— ©Kashmiri Pandit ψ™ (@KhushuRK) January 15, 2015
Ooh La La! Ex IPS @thekiranbedi joins BJP after nudge by Amit ENCOUNTER Shah. Principled Progressiveness or Senility? @NavenduSingh_
— UngliBaaz (@SauravShar) January 15, 2015
RT @thekiranbedi joins BJP !! when #MyLeaderKejriwal joined politics she said he is power hungry. Hypocrisy at its best. #ArvindJailed
— #Peace (@Aamadmi7) May 21, 2014
The former IPS officer too retorted to these tweets saying,
Times for new kind of politics…from perineal accusations to constructive analysis. Not for power or position but largest good & service
— Kiran Bedi (@thekiranbedi) January 20, 2015
While BJP is much ahead of its rivals with the likes of Kiran Bedi, Shazia Ilmi and Jaya Prada joining BJP apart from Congress veterans like Tirath and Lovely wearing the saffron cloth, Kejriwal is left pretty alone and it seems devastated by the support he is presently garnering from the masses and not to mention his own party members, (*winks*) more so now as he has neither Anna Hazare nor Kiran Bedi by his side. When he left the position of CM in 49 days over the Jan Lokpal Bill, he still had Anna’s support and before Kejriwal formed his own party, he also was favoured by Kiran Bedi but now it seems he has lost the confidence of even the common people, much to the saying, “Janta maaf nahi karegi.”
