When 65-year-old former police officer Kiran Bedi rose to speak at a Bharatiya Janata Party meeting for the first time in New Delhi, less than 24 hours after she had joined the party, both workers and leaders alike did not know what to expect.

The not-so-shining galaxy of BJP leaders, whose infighting had created a situation that made Ms. Bedi’s parachuting as chief ministerial candidate inevitable, sat with their shoulders slumped and faces glum. BJP workers who had been fed on Narendra Modi’s incessant politics as performance over the last year were hungry for more.

“How did I change my mind? By listening to my Modiji over and over again….what leadership qualities he has,” Ms. Bedi began. As her prescriptive speech elaborated on her “6-P formula for women’s safety”, the audience began to murmur.

In a video clip that went viral on the web, Delhi BJP general secretary Ashish Sood was seen whispering into a senior leader’s ears, Pradesh in-charge Prabhat Jha was struggling to conceal a smile and everyone was exchanging knowing glances. “Are you here for entertainment? Tell me, tell me…” Ms. Bedi demanded. “Those who are here for entertainment can go,” she declared and went on to elaborate what the six Ps were about.

In the ten days that followed, before she lost her voice to a throat infection, Ms. Bedi’s speeches failed to inspire much enthusiasm among the BJP workers or the ordinary voters, so much so that uncharitable critics say the party leadership has forced her to remain silent in order to avoid further embarrassment. The BJP had presented her as an able and tough administrator, but the claim hasn’t won many approvals. “I think she shed that image the moment she opened her mouth,” a young woman in Delhi says.

But the BJP had no option. With a 46-year-old Arvind Kejriwal wearing an Aam Aadmi topi already waiting in the ring, it had to push someone in for the big fight scheduled for February 7. When the Aam Aadmi Party dared the BJP to announce its CM candidate, the BJP was on the back foot, and had no candidate internally who could be up to the task. “Bedi may not be doing any wonders.

But in her absence, things would have been far worse for us,” says a BJP leader in the State.

But Ms. Bedi has been trying her best. Since the campaigning started, her morning involves a visit to the Krishna Nagar constituency, from where she will be fighting the polls. There she navigates the lanes by foot, on cycle rickshaw or in an open jeep. With Union Minister Harsh Vardhan by her side, on most days, she appeals for votes in a constituency that elected him to power five times in a row. Yet, the faces that peep out of the windows while she passes by, and the crowds that follow her during the road shows, are a stark contrast to the large gatherings that the AAP chief attracts.

A boisterous road show she was part of in North Delhi’s Timarpur constituency saw several slip-ups . Firecrackers landed on a private car setting it ablaze, a man came under the wheel of the jeep she was travelling in and lookalikes of Mr. Modi and Baba Ramdev stole the show forcing Ms. Bedi to catch up.

It was only a matter of time before the BJP realised that Ms. Bedi, who was soon labelled by her colleagues as the ‘Iron Lady,’ would experience hiccups in transitioning into a full-time politician. Her strict dressing down of party workers at election meetings, her clothing a freedom fighter’s statue with a BJP scarf and the flurry of unflattering media interviews all in a matter of a week left the BJP red-faced.

With the party leadership sensing that things are not moving as they had hoped and campaigns turning out to be lacklustre, some midcourse corrections have been initiated by the BJP President Amit Shah who has unleashed the entire Modi cabinet to take control of the Delhi elections. A battery of Union ministers descended on the state BJP office on Thursday, taking over the reins of the polls displacing local leadership.

Meanwhile, the BJP chief does not miss an opportunity to reiterate how booth in-charges and panna pramukhs are like “God for the BJP.” “Modiji will come (to campaign); Kiran Bedi will come; Rajnath Singhji, Sushmaji, Arun Jaitleyji will all come to speak here, but the person who will make us win is the booth in-charge and the page in-charge ,” he said at a workers’ meeting in Hari Nagar.

Meanwhile, Delhi BJP chief Satish Upadhyay, was put in charge of managing the rifts that erupted within the ranks immediately after Ms. Bedi’s induction. On January 22, he wrote a letter to the local cadre appealing for unity and setting aside of differences and asking that everyone support the party’s “honest and straight forward” chief ministerial choice.

With barely a week left for Delhi to go to vote, it’s apparent that Ms. Bedi alone cannot swing votes in the BJP’s favour. However, with the full might of the RSS behind her, with several having to come in from neighbouring states, and the backing of the central government, it appears that it may not be easy to defeat her either.

And that is the reason why Delhi is a close contest.

Source: TH