Delhi elections: Kiran Bedi loses 'safe seat', apologises for defeat

New Delhi: BJP's chief ministerial candidate Kiran Bedi yesterday apologised to her party for letting it down after she lost from a constituency seen as a ‘safe seat' by the party, but demonstrated her ignorance about the city by admitting how she discovered during the campaign the yawning gap between the haves and have-nots.

Kiran Bedi

Bedi also admitted she got to know Delhi only after she started her campaign. She said her constituency Krishna Nagar, which has had former BJP chief ministerial candidate and now union minister Harsh Vardhan as its legislator since the first Delhi election in 1993, was dirty and needed at least a month just for cleaning.

She admitted her lack of knowledge about Delhi, and said the campaigning gave her a chance to know the city. "I am very happy I got to do this, because this showed me the real situation of Delhi. I was troubled with what I saw... the divide between urban rich and urban poor... There is a mammoth gap," she said.

However, in a strange admission, she also said she was not charged ‘even a rupee' for fighting the polls, adding that it was ‘rare' that this happened. "They (BJP) did not take even a rupee for making me the chief ministerial candidate... this is rare that a party gives you candidature and does not take even a rupee," Bedi said, while thanking the BJP for giving her the opportunity.

63,642
No. of votes Kiran Bedi got from Krishna Nagar