BJP tries damage control over Bedi, meets city lawyers

In a bid to contain possible damage after bar associations of High Court and lower courts came out in open against Kiran Bedi, the BJP on Friday reached out to the city lawyers to allay any apprehensions against its CM candidate.

The BJP fielded Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, a reputed lawyer, Law minister Sadananda Gowda and another leader Bhupendra Yadav to convince lawyers to give up their reservations on Bedi as she was a better prospect for Delhi than rival party AAP’s Arvind Kejriwal.

The meeting was organised by the legal cell of the party at its Delhi unit office at Pandit Panth Marg on Friday afternoon. A senior BJP leader said that earlier the party had thought to fix such meetings separately in district courts premises but owing to fear of backlash from bar associations, the party office venue was finalised.

 The Delhi lawyers had sizably voted for the BJP during the Lok Sabha elections, influenced by Narendra Modi’s appeal to turn around the country.

Delhi High Court and district courts bar associations opposed BJP’s projection of Kiran Bedi as CM candidate, digging dirt on the former police officer to accuse her of having indulged in “administrative misconduct”, “high-handedness” and “inefficiency”.

The association members  put out ads and pamphlets stoking the feeling that Bedi is against the lawyer community.

President of the Delhi High Court Bar Association Rajiv Khosla and Chairman of the Coordination Committee of All District Bar Associations R K Wadhwa had earlier announced that one lakh members of the organisation who are residents of the city would campaign against former IPS officer Bedi’s candidature.

The lawyers nurse an old grudge against the former Delhi police officer for ordering a lathicharge on them in Tis Hazari district courts way back in 1998.

The tiff started with Bedi’s order, when she was the DCP of North district, to illegally handcuff a lawyer for producing him in a court, alleges the press release issued by Coordination committee of All District Court Bar Associations of Delhi.
DH News Service