With the projection of Kiran Bedi as a possible chief ministerial candidate against Arvind Kejriwal of the AAP, the BJP has sought to address its biggest handicap in Delhi — of credible leadership.
Kejriwal’s strength, his high popularity rating as the future CM even when the AAP scored less than the BJP in opinion polls, was also the BJP’s biggest weakness.
The party simply did not have a leader to counter Kejriwal’s popularity in Delhi, a weakness that party president Amit Shah has sought to address with Bedi’s induction.
The party now hopes to sweep the middle class and women vote with Bedi’s credentials as a tough, no-nonsense police officer and anti-corruption campaigner.
It is entirely possible that the party may pit Bedi against Kejriwal from the New Delhi constituency.
The surprise and late projection also means that there is not enough time for the Opposition to highlight her known vulnerabilities — self-promotion, shifting loyalties and a spate of controversies, especially when she got her daughter’s admission in a medical college from the Mizoram quota, which evoked public protests in the State.
The bid to frontally counter the AAP challenge also included admitting Kejriwal’s former comrade, Shazia Ilmi, into the BJP’s fold on Friday although she is not going to be contesting the elections.
Party leaders strongly countered the view that the induction of Bedi and other AAP leaders like Ilmi is a sign of the BJP’s nervousness in Delhi and the waning of the Modi wave.
“We are getting a majority in the Delhi Assembly. With Kiran Bedi’s induction, we have consolidated our support base,” said Delhi leader Sudhanshu Mittal.
Addressing weaknessesThe move, according to Mittal, should not be perceived as a sign of weakness but the party’s ability to address its inherent weaknesses.
It means that Shah, who has taken charge of the party’s campaign in Delhi, is not following any set template.
The view so far was that the BJP will follow the formula adopted earlier in Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections.
In all these elections, the BJP campaigned without projecting any CM candidate and the Prime Minister remained the party’s chief campaigner.
In Delhi, however, the party has clearly felt that the lack of a face in the campaign against a strong contender like Kejriwal is harming the party’s prospects.
The AAP had seized on the BJP’s weakness and plastered ads that depicted the AAP vs BJP contest as a fight between Kejriwal and the doddering Jagdish Mukhi.
It would be hard to repeat these advertisements with Bedi as the counter.