Was approached by LK Advani to contest LS polls for BJP: Kiran Bedi

New Delhi, Jan 26: BJP's chief ministerial candidate for the Delhi Assembly elections, Kiran Bedi, on Sunday claimed that she had been approached by senior party leader LK Advani to contest the last Lok Sabha polls for the party.

Addressing a rally in the Adarsh Nagar constituency, she also said that she had an offer from Congress to join politics while she was with Delhi Police. "Last year, BJP had asked me to fight the Lok Sabha elections. Advanji personally asked me to do so, but I refused," Bedi said.

The former IPS officer further said, "Congress had offered me to join politics from Amritsar, since I belong from there, when I was with the Delhi Police."

After a meeting of the party's parliamentary board on January 19, BJP President Amit Shah had announced that they would field the 65-year-old Bedi as their chief ministerial candidate in Delhi, where Assembly polls are to be held on Feb 7.

Bedi also told the gathering today that she did not even "bother to reply" to AAP's offer to become their candidate for the top post "through newspapers and agencies".

Bedi: Congress had offered me to join politics from Amritsar

Attacking AAP, she questioned the way that it had governed Delhi during its 49-day tenure and took a dig at Arvind Kejriwal for raising the issue of not getting an invite for the Republic Day function. "What sort of a government were they running, sitting at Jantar Mantar and protesting? It was the same CM who said that there was no need of Republic Day celebrations and that the money should not go to waste," she said.

Bedi and AAP convener Kejriwal were part of anti- corruption activist Anna Hazare's core team when he was leading his agitation to press for the passage of the Jan Lokpal Bill in Parliament.

PTI