Delhi polls 2015: She must hit streets to know people’s angst, Arvind Kejriwal baits Kiran Bedi

NEW DELHI: Arvind Kejriwal and Kiran Bedi, once colleagues in a probity crusade, were locked in a bitter war of words on Tuesday. Now rivals in the race for the Delhi CM's post, they fought each other verbally at party meetings, in rallies and through tweets.

Kejriwal threw the first punch, challenging Bedi to a public debate. Bedi, BJP contestant from Krishna Nagar in East Delhi, refused to entertain her AAP rival and said she'd take him on the floor of the House. "Arvind believes only in debates. I believe in delivery of services," she answered.

That didn't silence Kejriwal, who urged her to unblock him from her Twitter account. Again, Bedi turned down Kejriwal. "I blocked him 15 months back when he called himself an anarchist. He was spreading negativity. Didn't want my 4 million followers to see negativity... it was a polluting account," Bedi said. Talking to reporters, she said: "Politics should be a vehicle for development, not accusation or negativity."

The face-off continued till later in the day. Bedi spent most of the day touring Krishna Nagar. Kejriwal addressed a jan sabha there in the evening and kept sniping at her. "BJP doesn't focus on development...Their entire attention is on defeating me. On February 10, when results are announced and they realize they've lost, they'll need a scapegoat. The party will shift all blame on Bedi then and say they lost because of her. I fail to understand why she let herself get trapped like this," Kejriwal said.

He then promised to replace all "fast" electricity meters if his party was voted to office. "Everyone is upset about these meters, but who installed them? I've documents to prove senior BJP ministers had a hand in it... Satish Upadhya installed these meters through his companies," he said.

Promising to slash electricity bills by half, Kejriwal attacked Bedi saying she didn't believe it was a problem. "I heard Kiran Bedi say in some interview there's no need to reduce electricity bills and people aren't sad about it. I request her to please come out on the streets, talk to people. Then will you know the reality of how people are upset over high power bills," he said. He alleged connivance between BJP and and a discom to explain why BJP won't reduce power bills. Bedi retorted: "People do not want free electricity. They want quality service and correct billing."

Accusing BJP of being anti-women, Kejriwal claimed the party had ministers who wanted women to stop wearing jeans and using cellphones. "One BJP minister says women should give birth to four kids, while a Haryana minister says women shouldn't work. The women of Delhi will know not to vote for a party with this mindset."