I failed the test of electoral politics, take full responsibility: Bedi

In her first detailed response after the Bharatiya Janata Party’s humiliating defeat in the Delhi assembly polls, Kiran Bedi on Monday said that she ‘failed’ the test of electoral politics despite giving it all her energy and experience.

The former Indian Police Service officer, whom the party had made its chief ministerial candidate, made the candid admission through an open letter.

"I have failed the test. And take full responsibility for my decision. But inside of me has not failed. Because given the time I gave to myself, I gave it all the energy and experience I had. Obviously it was not enough.

"I also wanted to not die one day with a guilt that I was commenting only and never daring to pass the ultimate test of electoral politics," she wrote in a lengthy post on her official blog.

Immediately after the results, she had created a flutter by saying that it was ‘not her defeat’ as she had given her best and felt it was a ‘loss for the BJP’ which should ‘introspect’ about the debacle.

Bedi, in her blog, added that she was relieved as her parents were not alive to hear the ‘foul words’ hurled at her during the campaigning. She also took a dig at the Aam Aadmi Party and its promises of providing free water and slashing power tariff by half, saying, people want freebies but there are no ‘free lunches’ in life.

"If you rob Peter to pay Paul, it won't be long before all get robbed," she said. Bedi, who contested from the Krishna Nagar constituency, lost to the AAP's S K Bagga by 2,277 votes.

In the letter, she also elaborated on a number of factors that played a ‘vital role’, saying that the ‘wise will read each one, and take due notice’.

She also said there was a need to rework campaigning as it was ‘not a level playing field for the level-headed serving people’. "Whole city or state comes to a grinding halt. Should it? Roads are in disarray, and work just stops...It's a field for might and muscle in all respects," she wrote.

Bedi said that she entered politics because she ‘wanted to see it get a stable government in alignment with government of India to get all that Delhi needed’.

Recalling her days as a police officer, she recounted a few anecdotes on tackling various challenges including ‘international sports events, VIP security, political upheavals, communal riots, agitations...".