New Delhi : Hours after former IPS officer Kiran Bedi was declared BJP’s chief ministerial candidate for the Feb 7 Delhi assembly polls, a hoarding of her along with party president Satish Upadhyay was vandalised outside the Delhi BJP headquarters Monday night.
Some vandals had cut out the faces of Bedi and Upadhyay from the hoarding that was put up outside the office of Bharatiya Janata Party’s state unit at 14, Pandit Pant Marg. Bedi joined the party Jan 15.
The banner showed Upadhyay and Bedi on one side and Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah on the other with the lines “Kiran Bedi ji ka Bhajapa me hardik swagat hain” (A hearty welcome to Kiran Bedi in BJP) written in the centre.
Minutes later, the hoarding was pulled down by a couple of party functionaries upon realising that some media personnel were taking pictures and shooting videos of the vandalised banner.
While Bedi has been named the party’s chief ministerial candidate, the party has made it clear that Upadhyay will not be contesting the election. It is believed that the Delhi BJP president was interested in fighting from the Malviya Nagar seat.
The incident gives credibility to some media reports that the decision to opt for Bedi — considered to be an “outsider” — over other senior leaders has divided the party, with one section overjoyed and the other left sulking.