Kiran Bedi's war of words with Congress: BJP supports the former IPS officer

As an ugly war of words has erupted in Puducherry between Lt Governor Kiran Bedi and ruling Congress, the BJP gave its support to the former.

Puducherry, Jan 7: The Puducherry unit of BJP on Saturday scoffed at the criticisms made against the functioning of Lt Governor Kiran Bedi, by the ruling Congress.

President of the local BJP, V Saminathan told PTI that he had apprised the Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh of the "excellent work" Kiran Bedi has been doing in Puducherry to ensure a clean administration and to achieve "prosperous Puducherry."

He also said the Congress' demand to the Centre to rein in the Lt Governor "is only an infructuous exercise." Maintaining that Bedi would not be replaced, Saminathan declined to be drawn into any discussion on the memorandum sent to the Union Home Minister, by the ruling Congress MLAs, seeking his intervention to direct Bedi to function in tandem with the administration here.

"I do not want to discuss the issue but would only say that Bedi was keen about providing a clean administration to the people," he said.

The latest friction in the ties between Bedi and the Puducherry government came after the former cancelled the Chief Minister's January 2 order banning use of WhatsApp for official communication even as she (Bedi) was pushing with her plan to promote WhatsApp communication by officials.

PTI