Delhi elections- "Kiran Bedi has arrested decline of votes, not increased it"

Updated: Friday, February 6, 2015, 10:23 [IST]

New Delhi, Feb 2: How much of a difference has Kiran Bedi made to the prospects of the BJP in the forthcoming Delhi elections. The BJP explains that while the Kiran Bedi factor has not helped increase the vote share of the party, it certainly has aided in arresting any possible decline in the number of votes.

G V L Narasimha Rao, the national spokesperson of the BJP speaks with OneIndia on how he expects the BJP to fare in the Delhi elections among other issues.

The Bedi-factor:

The sense that I am getting is that Kiran Bedi has not helped the BJP increase its vote share.. The appeal for the voter is still Narendra Modi. It is Modi who the people are going to vote for, Rao points out.

With regards to Kiran Bedi, while she has not helped in increase the votes, what she has managed to do is arrest any possible decline of the BJP votes. What the party felt is that by announcing a CM candidate, it would help arrest any possible decline of votes, Narasimha Rao adds.

Why was a CM candidate announced?

"Yes in Maharashtra where we did exceedingly well, a CM candidate was not announced. However, in Delhi what happened was the Aam Admi Party had launched a campaign, Arvind Kejriwal vs who?

The AAP was looking to continue with that campaign and that could have resulted in some sort of a decline in the BJP's vote share. The BJP would have been on the defensive then.

The reason to bring in Kiran Bedi was not about adding the votes, but arresting a possible decline."

The predictions for the BJP:

"Prior to announcing the name of Kiran, my prediction was that the BJP will get a 2/3rds majority. My prediction even today is the same. The BJP however felt that after the campaign gained momentum, not declaring a CM candidate could have created some problems.

The AAP was starting to create doubts in the minds of the people about the CM and its CM candidate. The BJP wanted to arrest this immediately and hence decided to take the decision regarding Kiran Bedi."

Kiran Bedi and the infighting in the BJP:

Rao says, "trust me this infighting that everyone is speaking about is nothing but exaggerated. The BJP is no longer the party it used to be 2 years back. None have criticized the party openly or secretly and hence this question of infighting does not make sense.

The entire BJP campaign is being micro managed at the highest level. Every report from each polling booth reaches the top leadership. This ideally means that the BJP will arrest or prevent any attempt of sabotage immediately."

Is Mukul Roy joining the BJP?

There is no such plan as of now. I have been speaking to a lot many people in the BJP who have indicated that Roy is not joining the party. However, I must add that the TMC is a troubled house today and that time is not far away when the entire TMC joins the BJP, Rao further states.

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