Delhi Polls: Former AAP leaders apologise for joining party

New Delhi: Four members of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), who left the party, on Wednesday apologised to the general public for joining hands with Arvind Kejriwal.

Rabindranath Tiwari, a former AAP member and an independent candidate from Janakpuri, along with the three others, including Mohit Singh, held their ears before the camera and regretted their earlier decision.

This move takes place just three days before the high-voltage Delhi Assembly polls.

The elections for the 70-member Delhi Assembly will be held in a single phase on February 7. The counting of votes will take place on February 10. The last day of campaigning is February 5. 

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PM Modi trashes opinion polls, targets AAP on funding issue

New Delhi: Singing the development mantra in his last rally three days ahead of Delhi assembly polls, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday tried to woo voters by highlighting central welfare schemes and trashed the opinion polls which gave an edge to AAP, saying BJP will get majority.

Attacking BJP's main rival AAP on recent allegations of "dubious" donations, Modi said he was asked by his friends whether he has also given donation to AAP and when he got it checked, "I was surprised to know that even Mahatma Gandhi and (US President Barack) Obama have donated to them." "What kind of people are they (AAP)? In public life there should not be any place for such lies," the Prime Minister, who has been holding rallies for three consecutive days in Delhi, targetted AAP without naming it.

Trashing opinion polls which have predicted majority for AAP, he asked people not to get swayed by these "lies" and said last time during last assembly elections they (AAP) claimed that they will win more 50 seats but could not even manage the highest tally. "Even when I contested from Varanasi in Lok Sabha, they (surveys) said Modi will lose by three lakh votes. I don't know who (pollsters) are they," Modi said, adding he was wondering how someone who could not win his own Lok Sabha seat was being projected as someone big, in an apparent reference to AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal.

Talking about various welfare schemes undertaken by his government to help the poor, Modi, during the rally in South Delhi's Ambedkar Nagar, said his politics was all about development without which no state can progress.

"My politics have only one style, only one mantra and only one focus and that is development. And it means that there should be change in the lives of the poor people. Their children should get education, their parents should get medicine. And there should be concrete house in place of jhuggis," he said.

He referred to 'Jandhan' and direct benefit transfer for gas cylinder subsidy as pro-poor measures taken by his government. In an apparent attack on Congress, he said his was neither a "ghotala sarkar (government of scam)" nor was a government run with the help of "ghotalebaaz (scamsters)". 

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RSS journal admits: Worried BJP chose Bedi after adverse feedback from field: indianexpress

An article in the RSS mouthpiece Organiser has said that the BJP is not “in a comfortable ground at present” in Delhi, and that the party had inducted Kiran Bedi and projected her as candidate for chief minister after receiving “adverse feedback from field against the Delhi BJP”.

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Delhi elections: Kiran Bedi joins BJP, to counter Kejriwal

New Delhi: Former Team Anna member Kiran Bedi on Thursday joined BJP and will contest the February 7 Delhi Assembly polls, a move seen as the party's effort to contain Aam Aadmi Party in the national capital. The 65-year old former IPS officer was inducted into the party fold in the presence of BJP President Amit Shah and Union ministers Arun Jaitley and Harsh Vardhan, triggering speculation that she may be in the race for chief ministership if BJP wins the polls. When asked whether she will be the party's chief ministerial candidate, Shah said party's Parliamentary Board will take a call on the issue after election results are out but added that her induction will "hugely strengthen" the Delhi unit.

He also announced that she will contest the polls but declined to answer whether she will be pitted against her former Team Anna colleague Arvind Kejriwal in the prestigious New Delhi constituency. "A decision about her constituency will be taken later." "Bedi's constructive contribution will play an important role in ensuring that BJP lives up to the expectation of the people in the election and in any future government" Shah told a press conference at the party's headquarters. Describing her as an able administrator who has been a crusader while in government and outside it, Jaitley said the party had been in touch with her for sometime and her joining it will make the party stronger. "She has experience in governance and enjoys a credible image. She is associated with certain values. She has been a crusader in government as well as outside it for a long time," he said welcoming her to BJP.

Bedi, in her speech, pitched her leadership credentials and said she knows "how to work and how to make others work". "I joined BJP due to the inspirational leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Delhi needs a strong, clear headed and stable government. We have to make it capital number one in the world," she said. Bedi thanked Modi, saying the PM's "inspirational leadership" has changed crores of Indians including her. "I wanted to sacrifice my entire life to social work. But he inspired me to join political life." However, contrary to expectations, there was no announcement from the BJP on whether actor-turned-politician Jaya Prada and former AAP leader Shazia Ilmi will be joining the party. The party is banking on Jaya Prada's glamour quotient to boost the party's chances, IANS reported, citing unnamed BJP sources.

 A former Samajwadi Party leader, Jaya Prada fought the 2014 Lok Sabha election as a Rashtriya Lok Dal candidate from Bijnor, but she lost. Former AAP legislator Vinod Kumar Binny too is likely to join the saffron party, according to reports. Meanwhile, another former AAP leader, Farhana, said she will be joining the saffron party within the next three days. "Now that the BJP is on the path of development, why should we not extend our help too? We will join the party in the next two to three days," Farhana told ANI. The BJP is likely to release its first list of candidates for Delhi assembly polls soon. The election committee of the BJP will meet in the Capital to discuss strategies for its campaign. The counting of votes in the Delhi elections will take place on February 10. In the last polls in Delhi in 2013, the BJP had bagged 31 seats in addition to one by its ally Shiromani Akali Dal, falling short of a simple majority in the 70-member assembly. The AAP had won in 28 seats and Congress got 8.

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