RSS chief unhappy over projection of Kiran Bedi as BJP's Delhi CM candidate

BHOPAL: RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat is unhappy with the projection of retired IPS officer and social activist Kiran Bedi as chief ministerial candidate of the BJP in Delhi on the very day she was inducted into the party.

The RSS is holding a four-day meeting with its Mahakaushal region functionaries in Sagar, 200km from here, which is being attended by Bhagwat.

Sources in the organization told TOI that Mohan Bhagwat on Friday gave a clear-cut hint that he was glad that a woman of Kiran Bedi's stature and calibre has been brought into the BJP fold. However, he took strong exception to the hurried and immediate portrayal of her as the chief ministerial candidate of the party. Bhagwat wanted to know who took the call.

While Mohan Bhagwat attended the RSS annual meet of the Mahakaushal unit in Sagar, message was rushed to him that the BJP had not made any such announcement official or unofficial and it was only a speculation propagated by the media. Sources also said that the RSS top-brass was concerned if the speculation was a political conspiracy by a faction in the Delhi BJP.

Union minister for water resources Uma Bharti also met RSS chief Bhagwat on Friday. She came to Bhopal by an early morning train and then rushed to Sagar to meet the RSS chief. It is not known what discussions were held during the meeting. Madhya Pradesh BJP president Nandkumar Singh Chouhan and organizational secretary Arvind Menon also rushed to meet Bhagwat on Friday morning. After the meeting, Chouhan and Menon said they discussed the nation's development with the RSS chief. "Politics was not discussed," Nandkumar Singh Chouhan told reporters.